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BX  6333  .M4  C3  1897 
Meyer,  F.  B.  1847-1929 
A  castaway,  and  other 
addresses 


A  CASTAWAY 

AND  OTHER  ADDRESSES 


BY 

F.  b/mEYER 

Author  of  "  Light  on  Life's  Duties."  "  The  Secret 
of  Guidance,"  etc. 


FLEMING   H.    REVELL   COMPANY, 
New  York.  Chicago,  Toronto. 

Publishers  of  Evangelical  Literature. 


Copyrighted,  1897 
Bible  Institute  Colportage  Association 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


First  Address:  A  Castaway 5 

Second  Address:  "Marred:  So  He    made   it 

AGAIN." 17 

Third  Address:  The  Natural  Man 29 

Fourth  Address:    The  Substitution  of  the 

Christ=life  for  the  Self=life.     ...    42 

Fifth  Address:   Christ  the  Complement  of 

OUR  Need 52 

Sixth  Address:  Deliverance  from  the  Power 

OF  Sin 62 

Seventh  Address:  God's  Two  Men 78 

Eighth  Address:    The  Anointing    with  the 

Holy  Spirit 85 

Ninth  Address:  The  Infilling  of  the  Holy 


Spirit. 


Tenth  Address:  Heart=^rest 114 


FIRST    ADDRESS 

A  CASTAWAY 

I  invite  your  attention  to  a  few  words  found  in  1 
Cor.  9:27:  ''Lest  that  by  any  means,  when  I  have 
preached  to  others,  I  myself  should  be  a  castaway." 

Paul  was  too  eager  and  too  practical  a  man  to  dally 
with  a  bogy  dread.  Since  then  he  intimates  that  it 
was  his  daily  fear  lest,  after  having  preached  to  others, 
he  might  himself  be  a  castaway,  I  suppose  that  there 
were  but  few  hours  in  his  life  when  this  dread  did 
not  haunt  him.  After  he  had  founded  so  many 
churches,  written  so  many  epistles,  and  exercised  so 
wide^spread  an  influence,  in  his  quiet  moments  he  was 
perpetually  face  to  face  with  this  awful  nightmare, 
that  the  day  might  come  when  he  would  be  a  casta- 
way; and  the  thought  drove  him  almost  to  madness. 
When  he  was  traveling  over  the  blue  ^gean,  when 
he  was  sitting  making  his  tents,  when  he  was  engaged 
in  dictating  his  epistles,  the  thought  would  come  back 
and  back  upon  his  heart:  "I  may  yet  be  a  casta- 
way." 

Have  you  ever  feared  this?  I  am  not  sure  that  a 
man  ever  reaches  his  highest  development  without 
something  of  the  element  of  fear,  and  I  ask  you  now 
if  in  your  life  you  know  something  of  this  haunting 
dread?  May  I  confess  to  you  that  it  has  become  a 
great  dread  of  my  own?  and  if  many  days  pass,  and 
no  one  writes  to  tell  me  of  help  derived   from   my 

5 


A  CASTAWAY 


ministry,  and  no  one  comes  to  join  our  church,  and 
no  one  seems  to  be  influenced  by  my  life  or  word,  I 
sit  myself  down  and  say: 

"  Good  God,  has  the  time  come  at  last  to  me  when 
for  some  reason  I,  too,  am  to  be  a  castaway?" 

And  reverently,  humbly,  but  most  searchingly,  I 
ask  you,  my  hearer,  whether  it  may  not  be  possible 
that  this  very  moment  you  are  already  a  castaway. 

"A   castaway" — IN    WHAT  SENSE? 

Is  it  to  be  supposed  for  a  moment  that  the 
Apostle  thought  that  when  once  the  believer  has  fled 
to  Christ  he  can  be  cast  out  into  the  outer  darkness 
where  there  is  weeping,  and  wailing,  and  gnashing  of 
teeth?  Is  it  possible  for  a  limb  to  be  torn  from  the 
mystical  body  of  Christ,  for  a  jewel  to  be  snatched 
from  out  of  His  crown,  for  a  sheep  to  be  devoured 
from  His  flock?  Are  there  any  unfinished  pictures 
in  God's  gallery,  any  incomplete  statues  in  His 
workshop?  Does  God  begin  a  work  in  the  soul  and 
leave  it  incomplete  and  unperfected?  We  cannot 
believe  it. 

It  is  said  of  Rowland  Hill,  my  great  predecessor  at 
Christ  Church,  London,  that  when  an  old  man  of 
eighty-four  and  just  before  he  died,  one  Sunday  night 
when  the  lights  had  been  put  out  in  Surrey  Chapel, 
the  verger  in  attendance  heard  him  go  to  and  fro  in 
the  aisle,  singing  to  himself: 

"  When  I  am  to  die,  '  Receive  me ' — I'll  cry, 
For  Jesus  has  loved  me,  I  cannot  tell  why; 
But  this  I  do  find,  we  two  are  so  joined, 
He'll  not  be  in  heaven  and  leave  me  behind." 

If  you  have  faith  as  a  grain  of  mustard  seed,  if  it 


A  CASTAWAY 


is  directed  toward  Christ,  a  union  has  been  formed 
between  Him  and  you  which  neither  heaven  nor 
earth  nor  hell  nor  time  nor  eternity  can  ever 
break. 

And  yet  the  Apostle  feared  he  would  be  a  casta- 
way.    What  did  he  mean? 

One  day  I  was  calling  on  a  brother  clergyman. 
He  took  me  out  into  his  garden  to  an  out= 
house,  against  the  side  of  which  was  resting  one  of 
the  old-fashioned  bicycles  with  a  very  tall  wheel.  I 
said  to  him: 

"  Do  you  ever  ride  this?" 

Said  he:  "No;  see  how  rusty  it  is.  I  have  not 
been  on  it  for  many  months.  I  have  got  something 
better,  something  that  suits  my  purpose  better," 
pointing  to  another  and  a  newer  bicycle  on  the  other 
side  of  the  house. 

I  said  to  myself:  ''Then  this  is  a  castaway." 

When  stylographic  pens  first  came  out,  I  pur- 
chased one  in  the  hope  that  it  would  serve  me  per- 
fectly. But  I  was  sadly  disappointed.  Sometimes 
when  I  attempted  to  use  it,  it  was  unwilling  to  serve 
me.  At  other  times  it  was  profuse  in  inking  the  fin- 
ger. Finally  I  discarded  it  in  hopelessness  and  pur- 
chased another  pen.  The  one  I  now  hold  serves  me 
perfectly,  and  I  have  no  difficulty  whatever  in  per- 
forming by  its  means  any  writing  upon  which  I' 
have  set  my  heart.  But  I  keep  the  other  one.  It 
lies  in  the  drawer  of  my  bureau,  and  often  when  I  am 
putting  my  things  together  to  go  upon  some  journey, 
I  think  I  hear  it  saying  to  itself  as  it  lies  there: 

"Ah,  he  is  going  away  without  me  again!  There 
was  a  time  when  he  never  left  home  without  taking 


A  CASTAWAY 


me  with  him;  he  never  wrote  a  letter  without  me;  he 
never  composed  an  article  but  that  I  first  knew  its 
contents;  but  for  these  many  days  and  months  I  have 
been  lying  here  unused." 

That  disused  stylographic  pen  is  my  conception  of 
what  Paul  meant  when  he  said  he  feared  being  a 
castaway. 

You  must  know  that  this  man  loved  to  save  men. 
It  was  the  passion  of  his  life.  Send  him  to  Philippi, 
and  he  will  not  be  there  a  day  before  he  has  turned 
the  devil  out  of  the  poor  demoniac  girl.  Let  him  be 
jDut  in  jail,  and  before  midnight  he  will  have  bap- 
tized his  jailor.  Send  him  to  Athens,  and  though  he 
is  all  alone,  he  will  gather  a  congregation  upon  Mars' 
Hill  within  a  week  or  two.  Put  him  alongside  of 
Aquila  and  Priscilla  at  the  bench,  and  he  will  make 
tents  and  talk  to  them  in  such  good  wise  that  they 
will  become  Christians.  Stand  him  before  his  judge, 
and  the  latter  will  cry:  "Almost  thou  persuadest  me 
to  be  a  Christian!"  Let  him  go  to  Rome,  tied  to  a 
Roman  sentry,  and  he  will  speak  to  these  men,  one 
after  another,  in  such  fashion  that  the  whole  Pretor- 
ian  camp  will  be  infused  with  the  love  of  God.  His 
passion  was  to  save  men.  I  do  not  believe  that  if  he 
were  alive  to-day,  he  would  be  in  a  street=^car,  or  a 
railway  car,  or  on  board  a  steamer  without  button- 
holing some  man  and  speaking  to  him  about  his  soul 
and  his  Savior.  The  whole  passion  of  the  man  was 
to  save  some;  but  he  feared  that  unless  he  took 
good  care,  the  hour  might  come  in  his  life  when 
Christ  would  say: 

"Thou  hast  served  me  well,  but  thou  shalt  serve 
me  no  more.     Of  late  thou  hast  become  indolent,  and 


A  CASTAWAY 


choked  with  pride,  and  I  have  not  secured  thy  whole 
obedience.  I  am  now  compelled  to  call  upon  some 
soul  more  alert,  more  obedient  than  thee;  and  that 
man  I  will  use  to  do  the  work  that  thou  mightest 
have  done,  but  which  thou  didst  fail  to  accom- 
plish." 

This  comes  home  upon  us,  brother  ministers.  I  am 
speaking  to  some  who  in  their  earlier  life  were  won- 
drously  used  of  God  in  soul^winning,  as  they  went 
from  the  seminary  or  the  college,  and  took  their  first 
church.  Sunday  after  Sunday  the  inquiry^room  was 
crowded.  The  simple  villagers,  from  their  lips,  heard 
the  Word  of  God,  and  were  converted,  and  the  com- 
municant's roll  was  weekly  increased.  The  boya  of 
the  neighborhood  were  attracted,  and  won  like  jewels 
for  Christ.  Am  I  not  speaking  to  women  who  in 
their  first  burst  of  love  to  Christ  wore  the  signs  of 
holy  earnestness  in  their  circles  of  society,  so  that  all 
who  came  in  contact  with  them  were  made  to  feel  the 
power  of  a  genuine  love  to  God?  May  we  not  all 
look  back  to  days  upon  days,  long  passed,  when  we 
were  the  channels  through  which  Jesus  spoke  and 
wrought,  and  the  Holy  Ghost  was  poured  upon  men? 
But  what  has  happened?  We  preach  the  same  old 
sermons,  but  Christ  is  apparently  indifferent  to  them. 
We  go  through  the  same  mechanical  routine,  but 
there  is  no  stir  of  life.  These  many  days  have  passed, 
and  there  have  been  no  additions  to  our  church  roll. 
We  have  won  men  to  ourselves,  but  not  to  Christ. 
And  so  it  seems  as  though  whilst  men  flattered  us, 
and  whilst  we  had  a  certain  complacency  in  their 
applause,  heaven  passed  on  unheeding,  the  souls  of 
men   were   unreached,   and  our  churches  were  just 


10  A  CASTAWAY 


dying  of  inanition;  the  old  passing  on  to  God,  but 
the  young  untouched,  unsaved. 

May  not  the  question  therefore  come  to  us  now: 
"Perhaps,  after  all,  Christ  has  ceased  to  use  me! 
Christ  has  no  further  purpose  for  me!  I  am  too  clum- 
sy, too  obtuse,  too  disobedient,  too  full  of  myself,  too 
much  out  of  touch  with  Him!  And  so  I  am  to  be 
put  on  the  shelf!"  Like  those  great  stones  in  the 
quarry  at  Baalbec — almost  completely  quarried,  but 
yet  the  temple  was  finished  without  them!  May  not 
this  question  go  through  the  audience:  "Am  I  a  cast- 
away? I  belong  to  Christ,  and  when  I  die  I  believe 
I  will  go  home  to  Him.  I  know  that  He  has  saved 
me  by  His  precious  blood;  but  has  He  ceased  to  use 
me?" 

Look  for  a  moment  upon  the  pages  of  Scripture, 
and  see  how  they  are 

LITTERED   WITH   CASTAWAYS! 

Let  us  then  understand  why  men  are  cast  away. 

I  take  the  first  case,  that  of  Esau.  He  comes  in 
from  hunting.  He  is  born  to  the  birthright.  The 
birthright  includes  the  power  of  standing  between 
God  and  the  clan,  speaking  to  God  for  men.  He  is 
famished.  Yonder  is  the  steaming  mess  of  pottage 
prepared  by  his  brother  Jacob. 

"  Give  me  that  red  lentile  pottage,"  he  cries. 

Jacob,  crafty  in  heart,  bargains:  "Give  me  your 
spiritual  birthright." 

Is  there  not  here  some  Christian,  who  in  the  past 
has  had  some  steaming  mess  of  pottage  appealing  to 
the  senses?  There  is  not  one  of  us  who  has  not  been 
tempted  by  some  temptation  to  sense.     Aye,  it  may 


A  CASTAWAY  11 


be  there  is  many  a  man  who  is  glancing  back  into 
his  past  life,  and  who  knows  that  he  has  yielded — 
not  once  or  twice,  but  oftener— to  the  appeal  to  the 
senses.  He  has  taken  a  drink,  or  indulged  some  oth- 
er appetite,  and  has  despised  his  birthright. 

I  once  heard  a  story  that  made  my  heart  ache,  of  a 
gray-headed  man  who  had  been  greatly  used  of  God. 
In  his  home  he  had  fallen  into  one  gross  act  of  im- 
morality. Another  went  to  accuse  him  of  his  crime. 
They  were  sitting  together  at  the  tea4able.  His  por- 
tion was  not  sufficiently  sweet;  and  in  the  midst  of 
this  talk  upon  which  depended  whether  or  not  the 
one  should  be  held  guilty,  and  whether  he  should  be 
permitted  to  continue  in  his  ministry,  he  said  slight- 
ingly: 

"  My  tea  is  sour.     Give  me  some  more  sugar." 

He  cared  more  at  that  awful  moment  of  his  life 
whether  or  not  the  tea  was  sour  or  sweet  enough, 
while  his  jDower  as  a  minister  of  God's  holy  gospel 
was  trembling  in  the  balance.  He  did  eat  and  drink, 
and  despised  his  birthright. 

Have  you  never  eaten  and  drunken,  and  despised 
your  birthright?  Are  you  quite  sure  that  some  silent 
and  beautiful  form  has  not  come  into  your  life  and 
destroyed  your  heart's  true  love?  Are  you  quite  sure 
that  there  is  not  in  you  some  hungry  appetite  that 
has  sought  satisfaction? 

"Give  it  me.  I  must  have  it.  I  cannot  live  with- 
out it.  Even  though  I  have  not  quite  the  spiritual 
power  that  I  had,  give  it  me." 

So  men  despise  their  birthright  still,  and  they  are 
cast  away.  Esau  became  a  prince  in  this  world,  and 
the  father  of  a  line  of  dukes,  and  all  the  world  flat- 


12  A  CASTAWAY 


tered  him  and  thought  him  a  prosperous  and  success- 
ful man,  but  God  wrote  over  him  the  awful  epitaph: 

"This  man  is  a  castaway.  He  did  eat  and  drink, 
and  rose  up,  and  went  his  way :  thus  he  despised  his 
birthriQ:ht." 

I  turn  the  page  of  Scripture,  and  come  to  the  first 
king  of  Israel,  Saul.  A  noble  man  in  many  respects, 
he  was  sent  by  God  to  fulfil  His  mission,  but  he  put 
a  reserve  upon  his  obedience,  and  told  Samuel  with  a 
kind  of  pious  blarney: 

" Blessed  be  thou  of  the  Lord:  I  have  performed 
the  commandment  of  the  Lord." 

The  old  prophet  at  that  moment  detected  the  low- 
ing of  the  herd  and  the  bleating  of  the  flock,  and 
said  very  significantly: 

"  Performed  the  commandment  of  the  Lord!  What 
means  then  this  bleating  of  the  sheep  in  mine  ears, 
and  the  lowing  of  the  oxen  which  I  hear?" 

I  am  not  here  to  denounce  specific  forms  of  sin. 
If  I  did,  the  result  would  be  that  the  people  who  were 
not  directly  attacked  would  hold  up  their  umbrellas 
and  let  my  words  drip  upon  some  others  whom  they 
think  they  would  fit,  and  they  would  suppose  there- 
fore that  they  passed  muster.  But  I  am  here  to 
bring  you  face  to  face  with  the  eternal  God,  to  lead 
your  consciences  before  the  great  White  Throne,  and 
let  the  light  of  the  eternal  purity  of  God  blaze  like  a 
flash-light  upon  them.  It  will  be  for  you  to  deter- 
mine if  under  the  profession  of  obedience  there  are 
some  flocks  and  herds  that  you  are  reserving  for 
yourselves.  It  is  possible  when  you  go  to  a  man's 
home,  or  when  you  even  smell  his  breath,  or  when 
you  hear  him  speak,  to  know  whether  or  not  he  has 


A  CASTAWAY  13 

given  U13  all  for  God.  Some  unfortunate  sheep  starts 
bleating.  Saul  professed  obedience,  but  kept  back 
something  for  himself;  and  God  rejected  him.  He 
lingered  ten  years  more  on  the  throne,  but  he  was  a 
castaway.  A  young  David  was  already  anointed  to 
succeed  him. 

So  when  I  pass  through  the  Word  of  God  and  take 
case  after  case,  my  heart  bleeds  and  cries  out  because 
I  know  not  who  may  be  here.  I  would  speak  with 
all  tenderness  and  all  pity  and  all  love.  I  have  not 
come  to  scathe  anyone.  I  have  not  come  to  denounce. 
It  is  because  I  know  what  the  horror  of  that  pit  is,  and 
what  the  horror  of  being  cast  away  from  God's  serv- 
ice means,  that  I  now  speak  in  this  way.  You  ex- 
pected that  I  would  bring  you  a  system  of  spiritual 
truth, — and  I  have  such  a  system  to  present;  you  ex- 
pected that  I  was  going  to  teach  you  how  to  receive 
the  Holy  Ghost  of  Pentecost,  so  that  every  day  might 
be  a  Pentecost, — and  I  have  that  blessed  message  to 
tell  you ;  but  I  dare  not  come  to  those  deep  and  bless- 
ed subjects  until  I  have  introduced  into  your  heart  a 
spirit  of  self=scrutiny  and  searching,  that  everyone 
may  ask  himself: 

"  Can  it  be  that  though  I  am  a  minister,  or  an  offi- 
cer of  the  church,  and  bear  around  the  holy  elements 
on  Sunday  at  the  Communion  service,  and  give  my 
money  to  philanthropic  objects — can  it  be  that  in 
God's  sight  I  am  a  castaway?" 

Coming  out  of  a  meeting  recently  a  brother  min- 
ister came  up  to  me,  took  me  by  the  hand,  shook 
it  warmly,  and  said: 

"I  have  enjoyed  your  meeting  so  much." 

Directly  he  said  that  I  knew   that  I   had  failed. 


14  A   CASTAWAY 


When  a  man  says  that  he  has  enjoyed  a  meeting  like 
this,  I  know  that  I  have  not  touched  him. 

You  remember  when  Jacob  got  down  into  the  Jab- 
bok  ford,  how  beneath  those  Syrian  stars  he  wrestled 
with  the  angel,  and  the  angel  with  him.  Presently 
the  angel  put  forth  his  hand  and  touched  the  sinew 
of  his  strength,  and  he  limped.  Do  you  think  it  is 
possible  that  Jacob  could  have  limped  into  the  camp 
next  morning,  and  going  to  his  loved  Rachel,  have 
said  to  her: 

"  O  Rachel,  we  have  had  a  lovely  time  all  night.  I 
have  enjoyed  it!" 

Rather  he  must  have  said  to  her:  *'I  have  had  a 
night  which  has  blasted  my  strength,  which  has  left 
a  scar  upon  me  which  I  shall  carry  till  I  die.  O  wo- 
man, I  have  fought  with  the  angel  of  God's  love! " 

This  may  be  the  beginning  of 

A  NEW  ERA  IN  MANY  A   LIFE. 

But  we  must  begin  at  the  bottom;  we  must  begin 
at  the  root  of  our  self-confidence.  The  prime  cause  of 
all  failure  in  private  life  as  well  as  in  public  ministry 
is  the  assertion  of  self.  As  long  as  men  and  women 
think  it  is  all  right  with  them,  nothing  can  be  done 
for  them.  It  is  only  when  there  is  excited  within 
them  a  fear  that  after  all  things  may  not  be  quite  so 
well  as  they  seem,  a  dread  that  after  all  they  may 
have  made  a  mistake  and  be  self=deceived,  it  is  only 
then  that  in  the  secret  of  their  own  chambers  they  be- 
gin to  ask  God:  "  Am  I  just  what  I  expected?"  It 
is  then  that  the  heart  is  laid  open,  and  they  may  be 
brought  to  understand  how  a  man  may  be  almost  a 
castaway  and  yet  be  taken  back  to  the  bosom  of 


A  CASTAWAY  15 


Christ  as  Peter  was;  for  within  six  weeks  the  man 
who  was  nearly  cast  away  became  the  Apostle  of  Pen- 
tecost. 

Paul  said:  "Lest  I  should  be  a  castaway.  There- 
fore, though  I  have  a  perfect  right  to  go  to  an  idol 
temple,  I  shall  not  go  for  fear  other  men  seeing  me 
go  may  follow  me,  and  what  might  be  innocent  to  me 
might  be  death  to  them.  Lest  I  should  ruin  any 
man's  soul  by  going,  I  will  abstain.  I  have  a  perfect 
right,  if  I  choose,  to  take  a  wife;  but  I  shall  not  do 
it.  I  will  live  a  bachelor  life,  and  toil  with  my 
hands,  because  by  being  lonesome  myself  I  may 
touch  some  other  man  who  is  lonesome  too,  and  by 
working  with  my  own  hands  I  shall  stay  upon  the 
bench  beside  others  who  will  be  drawn  to  me  by  sym- 
pathy. There  are  many  things  which  this  body  of 
mine  may  have  in  innocence,  but  I  shall  not  take 
them  because  I  wish  to  keep  my  body  under,  lest  it 
should  master  me  and  cause  me  to  be  a  castaway." 

Christ  waits — the  sweet,  strong,  pure  Son  of  God, 
— His  heart  yearning  over  men  and  yearning  to  pour 
itself  through  us  to  save  them.  But  many  of  us  have 
choked  Him,  resisted  Him,  thwarted  Him.  One  feels 
like  asking  the  whole  audience  to  fall  before  Him  in 
confession,  and  to  ask  that  this  holy  day  may  not 
pass  until  He  has  restored  us  to  fellowship  with  Him- 
self. 

My  friend.  Dr.  Harry  Grattan  Guinness,  told  me 
once  that  all  the  water  supply  had  become 
choked  out  of  their  college  in  Derbyshire,  England. 
They  could  not  obtain  one  drop  of  water  from  the 
bottom  to  the  top  of  the  house.  They  searched  the 
cisterns,  and  inspected  the  taps  and  the  whole  ma- 


16  A  CASTAWAY 


chinery,  and  found  no  cause.  At  last  they  went  to 
the  junction  between  the  main  reservoir=pipe  and 
their  house=pipe,  and  there  in  the  orifice,  in  the  joint 
between  the  two,  squatted  a  huge  toad,  which  (as  they 
were  told)  had  probably  come  in  as  a  tadpole,  had 
fed  upon  the  water,  and  had  grown  to  this  size,  so 
that  the  whole  water  was  stopped  because  it  choked 
the  orifice. 

Your  life  has  been  dry  lately;  no  tear,  no  prayer, 
no  fervor,  You  have  not  met  Christ,  you  have  not 
seen  His  face  for  many  a  long  day.  He  has  not  used 
you.  It  must  be  because  there  is  something  in  your 
heart,  innocent  once  but  injurious  now.  May  God 
show  you  what  it  is!  Get  quiet,  and  prostrate  your- 
self before  God.  If  people  want  to  speak  to  you, 
brush  past  them.  If  they  want  to  detain  you  with 
small  talk,  leave  them.  Cast  yourself  down  in  some 
solitary  place  before  God,  and  say: 

"  May  God  forgive  me!  May  God  show  me  the 
sin,  show  me  what  it  is  that  hinders  me,  show  me  what 
has  nearly  wrecked  my  life.  Whatever  comes,  may 
I  not  be  a  castaway,  but  still  used  by  Thee  through 
the  Holy  Ghost  for  Christ." 


SECOND  ADDRESS 

"MARRED:  SO  HE  MADE  IT  AGAIN" 

Once  Pagannini,  standing  before  a  great  audience, 
broke  string  after  string  in  his  violin,  until  only  one 
was  left.     He  held  up  his  violin,  and  said: 

"  One  string  and  Pagannini.  " 

Now  we  want  one  man  and  God,  God  working 
through  a  man  so  that  the  man  is  the  channel,  But 
before  God  can  work  by  a  man,  he  must  be  right,  and 
I  have  to  speak  now  on  how  God  can  make  a  man 
right,  fit  for  service. 

In  the  preceding  address  we  came  to  despair.  We 
stood  upon  the  brink  of  the  precipice  and  looked 
down  into  the  dark,  fearing  that  we  might  be  cast- 
aways.    Now  I  take  for  my  text  the  words: 

"  He  made  it  again."  Jeremiah  18,  4. 

What  did  he  make  again?  Jeremiah  was  a  disap- 
pointed man.  He  thought  he  could  do  no  more  to 
stay  the  people  from  destruction.  His  heart  was 
breaking.  God  told  him  to  go  down  to  the  potter's 
house,  and  there  he  saw  the  potter  take  a  piece  of  clay 
and  place  it  on  a  wheel.  As  he  stood  there  to  watch, 
the  potter  shaped  it:  it  rose  beneath  his  hand  into  a  fair 
and  lovely  shape.  But  just  as  it  was  complete,  and  it 
seemed  as  though  nothing  more  was  needed,  it 
crumbled  beneath  his  hand.  Some  part  of  it  fell  upon 
the  wheel,  some  part  upon  the  ground.  Jeremiah 
thought  that  the  potter  would  take  another  piece   of 

17 


18  ''MARRED:    SO  HE  MADE  IT  AGAIN" 

clay  and  make  that  clay  fulfil  his  plan,  but  instead  he 
stooped  and  gathered  the  broken  clay  with  his  hand, 
picked  it  from  the  ground,  and  kneading  it  with  his 
hand  he  placed  it  once  more  upon  the  wheel  and  be- 
gan to  make  that  clay  again;  and  presently  a  vessel 
as  fair  as  possible  stood  complete,  ready  to  be  taken 
to  the  kiln  to  be  baked  and  made  permanent. 

Away  back  in  your  life  God  took  you  and  placed 
you  upon  the  wheel,  and  for  these  many  years  God 
has  sought  to  make  you  fair.  But  I  know  not  why, 
I  cannot  tell, — God  knows, — you  know, — there  has 
come  a  flaw  and  break,  and  you  are  a  piece  of  broken 
pottery.  Your  life  is  a  marred  life,  your  ideal  a 
broken  ideal,  and  all  around  there  lie  the  littered 
pieces  of  the  man  or  the  woman  that  you  might  have 
been. 

But  now  what  shall  you  do?  God  put  you  in  that 
place  for  a  high  purpose,  but  you  have  missed  your 
mark.  Shall  God  take  another  man  and  give  him 
your  wealth,  another  woman  and  give  her  your  posi- 
tion? Shall  God  take  another  student  and  put  him 
in  your  church?  Shall  God  call  another  body  to 
perform  the  work  your  church  should  do?  Not  yet, 
not  yet.  He  might  take  another  piece  of  clay  and 
make  that  a  vessel,  but  instead  He  comes  again  to 
seek  you.  His  hand  is  passing  through  this  audience 
to  find  you,  that  the  broken  pieces  of  your  life, 
your  marred  and  spoiled  ideal,  may  be  made  over 
again.  Clergyman,  merchant,  lady  of  fashion.  Chris- 
tian worker,  student,  singer, — God's  hand  is  feeling 
for  you  now.  The  hand  of  God  is,  so  to  speak,  laying 
hold  upon  the  broken  pieces  of  your  marred  and 
spoiled  life,  and  if  you  will  let  Him,  He  will  now 


'^MARRED:    SO  HE  MADE  IT  AGAIN''  19 


begin  to  complete  your  nature  by  making  it  to  be 
what  He  meant  it  to  be  years  ago  when  you  were 
cradled  at  the  foot  of  the  cross. 

Why  have  you  failed?  Because  your  life  is  a  fail- 
ure. You  hide  it  by  going  to  church,  by  observing 
the  outward  routine,  by  a  hearty  laugh,  by  a  light,  gay 
air.  You  live  your  life  amongst  your  brethren  or  sis- 
ters, but  no  one  knows  that  deep  down  in  your  soul 
you  are  certain  that  you  are  a  failure,  that  you  are 
spoiled,  that  you  want  things  you  do  not  obtain,  that 
you  long  for  a  goodness  you  never  realize,  that  you 
reach  out  for  a  sweetness  and  purity  and  strength 
that  never  comes.  You  know  that  your  life  has 
fallen  beneath  God's  plan.  You  are  ready  to  confess 
it.     Why  is  it  so?     Is  it  because  God  has  failed? 

See  that  mother  bending  over  the  cradle  where  her 
firstborn  babe  lies.  See  how  a  smile  lights  up  her 
face  as  she  thinks  she  catches  the  plaudits  which  are 
to  welcome  his  success  in  coming  years.  But  no 
woman  ever  cherished  for  her  babe  visions  half  so 
fair  as  your  God  has  for  you.  He  hates  nothing  that 
He  has  made,  and  with  an  equal  love  He  wants  to  do 

HIS  BEST  FOR  EACH. 

What  then  is  the  cause?  Is  it  that  He  has  made  a 
mistake  in  your  life?  You  think  so.  If  instead  of 
being  a  poor  man  you  had  been  rich,  if  instead  of 
being  a  lone  woman  you  had  had  one  to  call  you  vnfe, 
and  httle  children  to  clutch  your  dress  and  call  you 
mother,  if  instead  of  being  tied  to  the  office^stool  you 
had  been  a  minister  or  missionary,  you  think  that 
you  would  have  been  a  better,  a  sweeter  character. 
But  I  want  you  to  understand  that  God  chose  for  you 


20  ''MARRED:    SO  HE  MADE  IT  AGAIN'' 

your  lot  in  life  out  of  myriads  that  were  open  to  Him, 
because  just  where  you  are  you  might  realize  your 
noblest  possibilities.  Otherwise  God  would  have 
made  you  different  from  what  you  are.  But  your 
soul,  born  into  His  kingdom,  was  a  matter  of  care  and 
thought  to  Him,  how  best  He  might  nurture  you; 
and  He  chose  your  lot  with  its  irritations,  its  trials, 
its  difficulties,  all  the  agony  that  eats  out  your 
nature.  Though  men  and  women  do  not  guess  it.  He 
chose  it  just  as  it  is,  because  in  it,  if  you  will  let  Him, 
He  can  realize  the  fairest  life  within  your  reach. 

Where  is  the  failure?  Look.  I  think  I  have  the 
wheel  before  me.  My  foot  is  working  the  treadle. 
It  is  revolving  rapidly,  horizontally  as  you  know.  I 
have  placed  it  on  the  clay.  I  begin  to  manipulate  it. 
It  rises  beneath  my  hand  till  I  come  to  one  certain 
point  where,  either  through  some  flaw  in  the  clay,  a 
bubble  or  a  fault,  it  resists  me.  Leaving  that  point, 
I  put  my  hand  around  again,  and  in  some  other 
direction  endeavor  to  secure  my  purpose,  and  then 
come  back  to  that  one  point,  but  again  I  meet  that 
obstruction  that  thwarts  me.  The  genius  of  my  brain 
as  an  artist  is  complete;  the  power  of  my  hand  to 
manipulate  is  unrivaled;  it  is  the  clay  that  thwarts 
me,  until  presently,  because  I  have  been  frustrated 
again  and  again,  the  work  is  a  marred,  spoiled  thing. 

Now  is  not  that  true  of  you? 

The  one  trouble  of  my  life,  years  ago,  was  just  this 
about  which  I  am  speaking  now.  God  was  dealing 
with  me.  I  suppose  He  wanted  to  make  me  a  vessel 
fit  for  His  use.  But  there  was  one  point  in  my  life 
where  I  fought  God  as  the  clay  fights  the  hand  of  the 
potter.    I  fought  God,  I  will  not  say  for  how  long. 


''MARRED:    SO  HE  MADE  IT  AGAIN"  21 

God  help  me  !  the  only  benefit  that  I  can  get  now  out 
of  those  years  the  canker=worm  has  eaten,  is  to  dis- 
cover the  secret  in  other  lives  while  they  too  are 
standing  still,  and  then  to  take  them  to  the  Christ  to 
whom  I  went  myself,  and  to  encourage  them  to  hope 
that  He  who  years  ago  took  up  a  s^Doiled  and  marred 
life  and  made  a  little  of  it,  will  take  other  men  and 
women  and  will  find  out  where  they  have  thw^arted 
Him;  and  finding  it  out,  will  touch  them  there,  and 
as  they  yield  to  Him  they  will  be  made  again. 

Now  what  is  the  point  in  your  life  where  you  ob- 
struct God?    Allow  me  to  search  you. 

WHEEE   IS   IT? 

People  come  to  me  and  speak  of  the  different  points 
in  which  they  have  thwarted  God.  A  man  came  to 
me  one  day  and  said  that  when  I  was  in  a  certain 
convention  I  asked  all  those  who  wanted  to  be  whol- 
ly for  God  to  stand  up.  He  refused  to  stand,  and 
for  months  his  will  rose  up  and  said: 

"  Who  is  this  man  that  I  should  stand  up  when  he 
bids  me?" 

For  months  he  fought  this  feeling,  until  not  long 
ago  he  came  to  me  and  said: 

"Come  and  pray!  I  want  to  confess  that  I  have 
been  fighting  the  will  of  God  for  months,  and  I  am 
wretched.     Help  me  to  get  peace." 

I  was  once  staying  with  another  man,  a  pastor. 
I  had  said  nothing  about  smoking,^!  never  do 
single  out  sins, — I  had  not  alluded  to  the  habit;  but 
one  day  we  were  walking  along  a  street  that  led  over 
a  river,  and  to  my  surprise  as  we  got  to  the  apex  of 
the  bridge  he  took  his  tobacco-pouch  and  pipe  and 


22  ''MARRED:    SO  HE  MADE  IT  AGAIN'' 

threw  them  over,  and  said: 

"  There,  I  have  settled  that." 

Then,  turning  to  me,  he  said:  "  I  know,  Mr. 
Meyer,  you  have  said  nothing  about  it;  but  for  the 
last  few  months  God  has  been  asking  me  to  set  a  new 
example  to  my  young  men,  and  I  said:  '  Why  should 
not  I  do  as  I  like,  and  they  as  they  like?  '  God  was 
searching  me,  and  I  was  fighting  Him;  but  it  is  all 
settled  now,  sir,  it  is  all  done  now." 

A  bright  young  girl,  at  the  end  of  one  of  my  ad- 
dresses, was  waiting  about,  and  I  said  to  her: 

"  Come,  my  girl,  I  am  quite  sure  that  you  have 
got  nothing  to  see  me  about." 

"  O,"  she  said,  "  I  have,  sir.  I  remember  that 
three  or  four  years  ago,  when  I  was  a  girl  at  school, 
one  of  my  companions  asked  me  to  go  out  and  get 
some  candy  for  her.  I  got  it,  but  I  ke^Dt  back  half  the 
money  for  myself.  That  sin  has  been  working  in  my 
mind.  It  seems  as  if  God  keeps  saying,  'Confess, 
confess,  restore';  but,  sir,  I  have  been  fighting  it  for 
the  last  month  or  two.  It  looks  so  stupid  to  do  a  lit- 
tle thing  like  that." 

I  said:  "  My  dear  child,  nothing  is  stupid  that  is 
going  to  please  God  and  put  you  right  with  His 
will." 

A  man  came  to  me  and  said:  "  I  cannot  understand 
it,  sir,  but  it  seems  as  if  God  is  blotted  out  of  my  life. 
I  used  to  be  so  happy." 

I  said:  "How  is  it?" 

Said  he:  "  I  think  it  has  to  do  with  my  treatment 
of  my  brother.  He  served  me  cruelly  over  my 
father's  will,  and  I  said  I  would  never  forgive  him. 
I  am  sorry  I  said  it,  but  he  has  been  going  from  bad 


''MARRED:    SO  HE  MADE  IT  AGAIN''  23 

to  worse,  has  lost  his  wife  and  child,  and  is  now  on  a 
bed  of  death,  and  I  cannot  go  to  him  because  I  said 
I  never  would." 

I  said:  "  My  friend,  it  is  better  to  break  a  bad  vow 
than  keep  it.     Go." 

He  went,  and  the  smile  of  God  met  him  just  there. 

Sixteen  years  ago  I  was  a  minister  in  a  Midland 
town  in  England,  not  at  all  happy,  doing  my  work 
for  the  pay  I  got,  but  holding  a  good  position 
amongst  my  fellows.  Hudson  Taylor  and  two  young 
students  came  into  my  life.  I  watched  them.  They 
had  something  I  had  not.  Those  young  men  stood 
there  in  all  their  strength  and  joy.  I  said  to  Charles 
Studd: 

"  What  is  the  difference  between  you  and  me? 
You  seem  so  happy,  and  I  somehow  am  in  the  trough 
of  the  wave." 

He  replied:  "There  is  nothing  that  I  have  got 
which  you  may  not  have,  Mr.  Meyer." 

But  I  asked:  ''  How  am  I  to  get  it?  " 

"  Well,"  he  said,  "  have  you  given  yourself  right  up 
to  God?  " 

I  winced.  I  knew  that  if  it  came  to  that,  there 
was  a  point  where  I  had  been  fighting  my  deepest 
convictions  for  months.  I  had  lived  away  from  it, 
but  when  I  came  to  the  Lord's  table  and  handed  out 
the  bread  and  wine,  then  it  met  me;  or  when  I  came: 
to  a  convention  or  meeting  of  holy  people,  something 
stopped  me  as  I  remembered  this.  It  was  the  one 
point  where  my  will  was  entrenched.  I  thought  I 
would  do  something  with  Christ  that  night  which 
would  settle  it  one  way  or  the  other,  and  I  met 
Christ.    You  will  forgive  a  man  who  owes  everything 


24  ''MARRED:    SO  HE  MADE  IT  AGAIN'' 

to  one  night  in  his  life  if  to  help  other  men  he  opens 
his  heart  for  a  moment.  I  knelt  in  my  room  and 
gave  Christ  the  ring  of  my  will  with  the  keys  on  it, 
but  kept  one  little  key  back,  the  key  of  a  closet  in 
my  heart,  in  one  back  story  in  my  heart.  He  said 
to  me: 

"Are  they  all  here?  " 

And  I  said:  "  All  but  one." 

"What  is  that?  "said  He. 

"  It  is  the  key  of  a  little  cupboard,"  said  I,  "  in 
which  I  have  got  something  which  Thou  needest  not 
interfere  with,  but  it  is  mine." 

Then,  as  He  put  the  keys  back  into  my  hand,  and 
seemed  to  be  gliding  away  to  the  door,  He  said: 

"  My  child,  if  you  cannot  trust  Me  with  all,  you  do 
not  trust  Me  at  all." 

I  cried:  "  Stoj),"  and  He  seemed  to  come  back;  and 
holding  the  little  key  in  my  hand,  in  thought  I  said: 

"  I  cannot  give  it,  but  if  Thou  wilt  take  it  Thou 
shalt  have  it." 

He  took  it,  and  within  a  month  from  that  time  He 
had  cleared  out  that  little  cupboard  of  things  which 
had  been  there  for  months.     I  knew  He  would. 

May  I  add  one  word  more?  Three  years  ago  I 
met  the  thing  I  gave  up  that  night,  and  as  I  met  it 
I  could  not  imagine  myself  being  such  a  fool  as  near- 
ly to  have  sold  my  birthright  for  that  mess  of  pot- 
tage. 

I  looked  up  into  the  face  of  Christ  and  said:  "  Now 
I  am  thine."  It  seemed  as  if  that  was  the  beginning 
of  a  new  ministry.  The  Lord  got  me  on  His  wheel 
again,  and  He  made  me  again,  and  He  has  been 
making  me  again  ever   since.      I  learned  that  night 


''MARRED:    SO  RE  MADE  IT  AGAIN''  25 

to  say  "yes,"  and  I  have  tried  to  say  "yes"  ever  since. 

Now,  my  friend,  you  say  to  me:  "It  is  quite  true, 
sir;  my  life  is  marred.  But  I  am  getting  to  be  an 
old  man.      Do  you  think  there  is  any  hope  for  me?  " 

My  text  says:  "He  made  it  again.'' 

Adelaide  Procter  says,  at  the  end  of  one  of  her  vers- 
es, that  we  always  may  be  what  we  might  have  been. 
In  a  sense  that  is  not  true.  You  and  I  never  can  re- 
call the  past,  and  yet, — and  yet  Jesus  has  a  wonder- 
ful knack  of  making  men  again. 

There  was  Jacob,  the  supplanter,  for  instance.  He 
met  him  again  at  the  ford  of  Jabbok,  and  he  was 
made  into  Israel,  a  i^rince  of  God.  There  w^as  Peter, 
and  He  made  him  again  so  that  on  the  day  of  Pente- 
cost he  became  the  means  of  the  Holy  Ghost's  advent 
to  the  world.  And  He  made  again  John  Mark  who 
went  back  before  a  touch  of  sea=sickness  to  his 
mother,  but  Paul  said  of  him  after:  "Bring  him,  for 
he  is  profitable.  "     He  will  make  you  again. 

Canon  Wilberforce  told  me  that  he  had  his  like- 
ness painted  by  the  great  artist  Herkomer,  who  told 
him  the  following  story.  Herkomer  was  born  in  the 
Black  Forest,  his  father  a  simple  w^ood=chopper. 
When  the  artist  rose  to  name  and  fame  in  London, 
and  built  his  studio  at  Bushey,  his  first  thought  was 
to  have  the  old  man  come  and  spend  the  rest  of  his 
years  with  him.  He  came,  and  was  very  fond  of 
moulding  clay.  All  day  he  made  things  out  of  clay, 
but  as  the  years  passed  he  thought  his  hand  would 
lose  its  cunning.  He  often  went  upstairs  at  night  to 
his  room  with  the  sad  heart  of  an  old  man  who  thinks 
his  best  days  are  gone  by.  Herkomer's  quick  eye  of 
love  detected   this,   and  when  his  father  was  safe 


2G  ''MARRED:    SO  HE  MADE  IT  AGAIN'' 

asleep  his  gifted  son  would  come  down  stairs  and 
take  in  hand  the  pieces  of  clay  which  his  old  father 
had  left,  with  the  evidences  of  defect  and  failure;  and 
with  his  own  wonderful  touch  he  would  make  them 
as  fair  as  they  could  be  made  by  human  hand.  When 
the  old  man  came  down  in  the  morning,  and  took  up 
the  work  he  had  left  all  spoiled  the  night  before,  and 
held  it  up  before  the  light,  he  would  say,  rubbing  his 
hands: 

"  I  can  do  it  as  well  as  ever  I  did." 

Is  not  that  just  what  God  Almighty  is  going  to  do 
with  you?  You  are  bearing  the  marks  of  failure  just 
because  you  have  been  resisting  Him  and  fighting 
Him.  But,  ah!  my  Lord  comes  w^ith  those  pierced 
hands,  and  says: 

**  Will  you  not  yield  to  me?  Only  yield,  and  I  will 
make  you  again." 

There  is  a  Pentecost  for  us  all,  but  we  must  begin  at 
the  beginning.     There  must  be  the  yielding. 

Young  girls,  who  have  come  out  of  beautiful 
homes,  the  children  of  luxury,  I  tell  you  that  all  the 
exterior  beauty  of  your  life  is  only  a  faint  adumbra- 
tion and  shadow  of  the  infinite  sweetness  and  grace 
of  the  life  of  Pentecost.  Live  in  the  promised  land, 
men  and  women,  you  who  have  been  seeking  in  the 
outside,  in  circumstances  and  things  and  people,  your 
bliss. 

YOU   HAVE   MISSED   IT 

— you  always  will  that  way.  It  is  inside.  It  is  in 
the  Holy  Ghost.  It  is  in  Christ.  Heaven  is  there. 
It  is  there  for  all.  But  believe  me,  you  cannot  get  it 
unless  you  take  the  preparatory  step.  Therefore  you 
must  get  alone  as  I  did  sixteen  years  ago;  you  must 


"MARRED:    SO  HE  MADE  IT  AGAIN''  27 

kneel  down  before  Christ  and  say : 

*•'  Christ,  I  give  Thee  myself,  my  will.  With  my 
will  I  yield  to  Thee.  Thou  art  the  Potter;  I  am  the 
clay.     Impose  Thy  will  upon  me." 

And  mind  you,  Christ  will  say  to  you:  "  What 
about  this?  "  and  if  you  can  look  up  and  say;  "  Yes, 
that  is  Thine,"  He  will  go  forward  and  make  you 
beautiful  and  happy.  But  if  you  refuse,  you  will 
stop  there,  you  will  be  dwarfed,  you  will  thwart 
Christ. 

At  Keswick,  a  little  village  in  the  Cumberland  Hills, 
where  we  meet  once  a  year  to  talk  about  these  things, 
if  you  go  out  at  ten  o'clock,  at  eleven  o'clock,  at 
twelve  o'clock,  at  one  o'clock  at  night,  you  will  see 
lights  burning.  My  heart  has  often  gone  up  in 
prayer  because  I  know  that  every  light  means  a  Jab- 
bok,  and  that  at  those  places  souls  are  yielding  to 
God.  At  Northfield  also  a  brother  clergyman  said  to 
me  last  convention: 

"  Mr.  Mej^er,  the  work  has  not  been  done  in  the 
auditorium,  but  it  has  been  done  in  the  woods  at 
night  where  we  have  gone  to  settle  it  with  God." 

Remember  this.  When  I  gave  myself  to  God  that 
night,  the  devil  said: 

"Don't  do  it!  If  you  let  God  have  an  inch,  He  will 
want  an  ell.  If  you  yield  in  one  thing  you  will  iiave 
to  yield  in  everything,  and  there  is  no  knowing  what 
you  may  not  come  to." 

At  first  I  thought  there  was  something  in  it.  Then 
I  remembered  my  daughter,  who  was  a  little  wilful 
then,  and  loved  her  own  way.  I  thought  to  myself 
as  I  knelt: 

"  Supposing  that   she   were    to    come   and    say — 


28  ''MARRED:    SO  HE  MADE  IT  AGAIN'' 

'  Father,  from  to-night  I  am  going  to  put  my  life 
into  your  hand;  do  with  it  what  you  wilL'  Would  I 
call  her  mother  to  my  side  and  say:  '  Here  is  a 
chance  to  torment  her.  What  would  mortify  her? 
what  color  of  dress  does  she  hate?  what  companion 
does  she  detest?  what  method  of  spending  her  life 
does  she  abhor?  Tell  me,  and  I  will  put  her  through 
them  all.'" 

I  knew  I  would  not  say  that.  I  knew  I  would  say 
to  my  wife:  "  Our  child  is  going  to  follow  our  will 
from  now.  Do  you  know  of  anything  that  is  hurting 
her?" 

"  Yes;  so  and  so." 

"  Does  she  love  it  much?  " 

"  Yes." 

"Ah!:  she  must  give  it  up,  but  we  will  make  it  as 
easy  for  her  as  we  can.  We  must  take  from  her  the 
things  that  are  hurting  her,  but  we  will  give  her 
everything  that  will  make  her  life  one  long  summer 
day  of  bliss." 

God  will  say  that  to  you.  He  only  takes  that  one 
thing  away  because  it  will  hurt  you.  But  oh!  He 
will  give,  and  give,  and  give!  You  have  no  idea 
what  God  will  do  for  you.  Say:  "  I  am  willing." 
But  let  me  make  a  confession:  I  did  not  say  that 
myself.  I  said:  "  I  am  not  willing,  O  God,  but  I  am 
willing  to  be  made  willing." 

God  help  you  to  make  the  same  prayer! 


THIRD  ADDRESS 

THE  NATURAL  MAN 

If  it  were  not  that  I  believe  in  the  Holy  Ghost,  I 
would  almost  shrink  from  speaking  about  the  pro- 
found philosophy  wherewith  the  apostle  Paul  deals 
with  the  self4ife;  but  I  believe  that  God's  Spirit  will 
take  my  broken  words  and  speak  to  each  of  you. 

Will  you  turn  to  1  Cor.  2: 14:  "The  natural  man 
receiveth  not  the  things  of  the  Spirit  of  God:  for  they 
are  foolishness  unto  him :  neither  can  he  know  them, 
because  they  are  si3iritually  discerned." 

''  The  natural  man."  The  Greek  is  the  "psychic- 
al "  man,  the  man  in  whom  the  soul  is  all,  and  the 
spirit  is  like  a  dark,  untenanted  chamber. 

The  temple  of  old  was  constituted  thus:  outer 
court,  holy  place,  holy  of  holies.  The  outer  court 
corresponds  to  our  body,  the  holy  place  to  our  soul, 
the  holy  of  holies  or  the  most  holy  place  to  our  spirit. 
In  the  regenerate  man  the  most  holy  place  is  tenant- 
ed by  the  Spirit  of  God,  but  in  the  unregenerate  man 
it  is  untenanted  and  dark,  waiting  for  its  occupant. 
The  natural  man  is  the  man  whose  spirit  is  empty  of 
God. 

In  the  fifteenth  verse  of  the  same  chapter,  we  read: 
"  But  he  that  is  spiritual  judgeth  all  things,  yet  he 
himself  is  judged  of  no  man." 

Here  we  have  the  "spiritual"  man,  the  man  whose 
spirit  is  quick  with  the  Spirit  of  God,  who  speaks 

29 


30  THE  NATURAL  MAN 

and  wills  and  lives  beneath  the  impulse  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  Himself.  Oh,  that  every  believer  became  tru- 
ly spiritual;  spirit-unfilled  (written  with  a  small 
•'  s") :  the  Spirit  of  God  (written  with  a  large  "  S  ") 
dominating  the  spirit  of  man. 

In  the  third  chapter  of  the  same  epistle,  Paul  be- 
gins: "And  I,  brethren,  could  not  speak  unto  you  as 
unto  spiritual,  but  as  unto  carnal,  even  as  unto  babes 
in  Christ." 

Now  the  "carnal"  man  is  a  Christian,  a  babe  in 
Christ.  We  might  think  that  the  carnal  man  is 
unregenerate,  but  it  is  not  so.  He  is  regenerate,  he 
is  in  Christ,  and  Christ  is  in  him;  but  instead  of 
Christ  being  predominant,  the  carnal  element  is  pre- 
dominant. I  believe  that  there  are  hundreds  of  peo- 
ple who  are  in  Christ;  but  they  are  babes  in  Christ. 
Christ  is  in  them,  but  He  is  overcrowded  by  the  su- 
periority of  their  selfdife.  Their  self-life  was  once 
clothed  in  rags;  it  is  now  clothed  in  the  externals  of 
religion;  but  it  is  still  the  selfdife,  and  in  the  Chris- 
tian may  predominate  over  the  Christdife,  and  be  the 
cause  of  unutterable  darkness  and  sorrow. 

May  God  help  me  now  to  reverse  it,  so  that  the 
carnal  element  shall  be  crowded  out,  shall  be  cruci- 
fied, and  the  Christ  element  shall  become  the  pivot 
of  your  life! 

In  order  that  you  may  know  what  the  carnal  ele- 
ment is,  let  me  say  that  that  word  also  stands  for 
"flesh,"  and  that  the  Greek  word  is  sarx  {aapq). 
Now  the  Apostle  uses  the  word  "flesh,"  "carnal,"  or 
"sarx"  in  a  very  especial  form.  He  does  not  mean 
the  natural  body,  but  he  means  the  element  of  self. 
That  is  proved  from  Rom.  7: 18,  where  he  says:  "In 


THE  NATURAL  MAN  31 

me,  (that  is,  in  my  flesh),  dwelleth  no  good  thing." 
My  flesh  is  ''me."  Some  men  spell  it  with  a  tiny  m, 
and  some  with  a  cajpital  M,  but  whether  the  m  is  in 
italics  or  in  capitals,  the  "  me"  in  each  person  is  the 
flesh.  Spell  '"'  flesh"  backward,  drop  the  h,  as  we  are 
apt  to  do  in  London,  and  you  get  s-e-l-f ;  "flesh  "  is 
"self,"  and  "self"  is  "flesh."  It  is  "me,"  and  as 
long  as  "  me  "  is  flrst  and  Christ  second,  I  am  living 
a  carnal  life  though  I  am  in  Christ  and  a  saved  man. 

FOUR   CHAEACTERISTICS   OF   THE   CARNAL   LIFE. 

Now  the  carnal  life  is  a  hcibe  life.  What  is  sweet- 
er than  a  babe?  So  beautiful,  so  wee,  one  can  take 
the  child  so  close  to  oneself.  But  what  is  tender 
and  beautiful  in  a  babe  for  a  few  months  is  terrible 
at  the  end  of  twelve  months,  or  ten  years.  And  what 
is  lovely  in  a  young  convert  is  terrible  in  a  man  of 
ten  or  twenty  years  of  Christian  life.  I  have  met 
men  who  use  the  same  expressions  twenty  years  after 
conversion  that  they  did  when  they  were  cradled  on 
Calvary;  and  if  you  are  still  living  in  the  elementary 
stage  of  experience  and  feeling  and  prayer,  and  do 
not  grow,  do  not  know  God  better,  do  not  know  the 
Bible  better,  do  not  know  yourself  better,  do  not 
know  Christ  better,  you  are  a  little  babe,  you  are  car- 
nal. 

And  then  the  carnal  man  lives  on  milk.  Paul  said: 
"I  have  fed  you  with  milk,  and  not  with  meat:  for 
hitherto  ye  were  not  able  to  bear  it,  neither  yet  now 
are  ye  able."  Milk  is  food  which  has  passed  through 
the  digestion  of  another.  The  babe  cannot  take 
meat,  so  the  mother  takes  meat,  and  breaks  it  down, 
and  the  child  takes  milk.     So  many  Christians  can- 


32  THE  NATURAL  MAN 

not  read  the  Bible,  cannot  get  any  good  out  of  the 
Bible,  it  must  be  broken  down  by  their  minister,  and 
they  are  fed  with  a  spoon!  Ministers  are  nurses. 
They  have  to  spend  their  time  wheeling  the  converts 
about,  comforting  them,  putting  them  to  sleep,  wak- 
ing them  up  and  feeding  them;  and  if  they  are  not 
fed  with  a  spoon  three  or  four  times  a  week,  there  is 
no  knowing  what  will  happen.  And  if  you  are  in 
that  state  that  you  must  take  spiritual  truth  through 
the  digestion  of  another,  you  are  a  babe. 

A  carnal  Christian  is  also  sedarian.  "  I  am  of 
Paul,  and  I  am  of  Apollos,  and  I  of  Cephas."  Oh, 
how  much  we  make  of  the  fold,  and  how  little  of  the 
flock!  How  much  we  think  of  the  hurdles,  and  how 
little  of  the  sheep!  One  man  says:  "  I  am  a  Baptist "; 
and  another:  "I  am  a  Presbyterian";  a  third  says: 
"I  am  a  Roman  Catholic";  and  a  fourth:  *' I  am 
evangelical."  Half  the  time  we  are  worrying  about 
the  sect  to  which  we  belong.  Directly  a  man  begins 
in  that  course,  and  forgets  the  Church  with  a  large 
C, — the  Church  of  Christ, — he  is  a  carnal  Christian 
and  a  babe. 

I  would  lead  you  one  step  further  because 
I  desire  to  make  my  system  perfectly  clear. 
Turn  to  Heb.  5:14,  w^here  we  read: 

"  Strong  meat  belongeth  to  them  that  are  of  full 
age,  even  those  who  by  reason  of  use  have  their 
senses  exercised  to  discern  both  good  and  evil." 

Here  we  have  a  fourth  characteristic  of  the  carnal 
Christian:  such  an  one  is  unable  to  exercise  his 
senses  to  discern  good  and  evil.  When  I  returned 
to  England  from  one  of  my  Atlantic  voyages,  my 
nose    was    very   sensitive;    the  pure  ozone   of    the 


THE  NATURAL  MAN  33 

Atlantic  had  made  me  very  keen  to  discern  im- 
purity. I  went  to  stay  with  some  friends  in  the 
country,  and  all  that  time  I  was  haunted  by  a 
noisome  effluvia.     I  said: 

''What  is  the  matter?" 

"  Oh,"  they  said,  "  there  is  nothing  wrong." 

I  said:  "I  am  sure  there  is,"  and  presently,  after 
investigating,  about  a  mile  off  we  discovered  a  sew- 
age-farm which  infected  the  air.  My  friends  who  had 
had  no  training  on  the  Atlantic  were  unable  to 
detect  it,  So  there  are  men  who  take  up  a  novel  full 
of  impure  thought  and  read  it  and  not  feel  hurt, 
though  the  hurt  has  been  certainly  received;  men 
and  women  who  listen  to  uncharitable  talk,  and  not 
detect  its  undertone;  men  and  women  who  go  in  and 
out  in  the  world  and  mix  in  its  pleasure  and  sin, 
and  still  call  themselves  Christians,  because  they 
cannot  discern  good  and  evil. 

Those  four  tests, — are  they  true  of  you?  I  am 
here  as  a  surgeon,  and  must  help  you  to  anatomize 
yourself  to  know  where  you  are.  Are  you  growing? 
Are  you  living  on  the  strong  meat  of  the  Bible? 
Are  you  a  sectary?  Have  you  the  power  to  discrimi- 
nate between  good  and  evil?  By  these  four  tests  you 
may  know  whether  the  Christ4ife  or  the  flesh4ife  is 
predominant  in  you. 

Let  us  go  deeper.  When  God  created  man.  He 
gave  all  intelligent  beings  a  self -hood,  a  power  of 
self-determination.  He  gave  it  to  angels.  Demons 
have  it,  because  they  were  angels.  Men  have  it, — 
self4iood.  The  Creator  meant  the  self=hood  to  be 
dependent  on  Himself,  so  that  a  Christian  might  turn 
to  the  Creator  and  say:  "Live   Thou  in  Thy  will 


34  THE  NATURAL  MAN 

through  me."  When  Jesus  Christ,  the  perfect  man, 
came  amongst  men,  during  all  His  earthly  life  He 
said  nothing  and  willed  nothing  from  Himself;  He 
lived  a  truly  dependent  life.  The  vegetable  creation, 
— the  flowers,  the  trees, — they  depend  on  God  abso- 
lutely, and  that  makes  them  so  beautiful.  Consider 
the  lilies  and  the  cedars,  how  they  grow!  And  the 
angels  who  have  kept  their  first  estate  live  on  God. 
God  wills,  thinks,  acts,  energizes  through  them. 
Satan  was  once  an  archangel  dependent  on  God,  but 
something  passed  over  him  and  he  caught  the  fever 
of  independence,  and  began  to  make  himself  his  own 
pivot;  and  so  he  began  to  be  in  hell;  because  hell  is 
the  assertion  of  self  to  the  exclusion  of  God,  and 
heaven  is  the  assertion  of  God  to  the  exclusion  of  self. 
The  devil  fell,  and  all  his  crew  that  leaned  on  him, 
instead  of  on  God,  fell  also.  Then  when  man  was 
made,  Satan  traversed  the  abyss,  and  whispered  to 
man: 

"  Be  God,  be  independent,  take  your  own  way,  do 
your  own  will." 

Man  in  his  fall  withdrew  his  nature  from  depend- 
ence upon  God,  and  made  himself  a  center  of  his 
own  life  and  activity.  And  this  world  is  cursed 
to-day  because  men  and  women  are  living  for  self, 
and  the  flesh4ife.  The  carnal  mind  is  enmity 
against  God,  and  is  darkness  and  despair. 

Christianity  is  a  science,  a  deep  science,  which 
tries  to  do  away  with  the  evil  or  the  fall  into  selfish- 
ness by  substituting  for  self  the  Son  of  God,  which 
is  Christ.  Is  it  not  wonderful  that  Hindooism  and 
Christianity  are  each  of  them  intended  to  deal  with 
the  same  root  of  evil?    But  the  Hindoo  tries  to  ex- 


THE  NATURAL  MAN  35 

terminate  the  self-life  by  absorption  in  eternity  until 
Nirvana  sets  in,  whilst  the  Christian  who  also  sees 
that  the  self4ife  is  accursed  eliminates  it  by  the  phi- 
losophy and  the  action  which  I  am  now  going  to 
describe. 

SELF-WILL  SHOWS   ITSELF   IN  VAEIOUS  FOKMS. 

"  Now  the  works  of  the  flesh  are  manifest,  which 
are  these:  Adultery,  fornication,  uncleanness,  lascivi- 
ousness,  idolatry,  witchcraft,  hatred,  variance,  emu- 
lations, wrath,  strife,  seditions,  heresies,  envyings, 
murders,  drunkenness,  revelings,  and  such  like." 
There  you  have  the  passion  of  the  selfdife  in  lust. 
"Are  ye  so  foolish?  having  begun  in  the  Spirit  are 
ye  novr  made  perfect  by  the  flesh?"  There  you 
have  the  aspirations  of  the  self4ife,  trying  to  perfect 
itself.  There  was  a  school  of  perfection  in  Galatia, 
and  they  sought  to  perfect  themselves  in  their  own 
energy;  and  there  have  been  schools  of  perfection 
since  then  which  have  tried  to  be  good  in  the  energy 
of  the  self=life.  ''  Let  no  man  beguile  you  of  your 
reward  in  a  voluntary  humility  and  worshipping  of 
angels,  intruding  into  those  things  which  he  hath  not 
seen,  vainly  pufPed  up  by  his  fleshly  mind,  and  not 
holding  the  Head,  from  which  all  the  body  by  joints 
and  bands  having  nourishment  ministered,  and  knit 
together,  increaseth  with  the  increase  of  God." 
There  you  have  some  intellectualism  prying  into  the 
things  of  God,  but  not  submitting  to  the  will  of  God 
and  the  teaching  of  God.  "  When  I  therefore  was 
thus  minded,  did  I  use  lightness?  or  the  things  that 
I  purpose,  do  I  purpose  according  to  the  flesh,  that 
with  me  there  should  be  yea,  yea,  and  nay,  nay  ?  " 


36  THE  NATURAL  MAN 


There  you  have  the  self-life  planning,  scheming,  and 
arranging  for  itself,  and  the  Apostle  says:  "  I  am  not 
going  to  plan  after  the  flesh." 

We  see  then  that  we  are  always  in  danger  of  doing 
good  things  from  the  self  pivot.  That  is  our  curse. 
I  hear  of  a  man  who  has  consecrated  himself  to  God, 
and  I  say  to  myself:  "  I  will  do  the  same."  I  hear  of 
a  man  who  has  attracted  crowds  by  some  special  lan- 
tern, or  by  some  new  machinery,  and  I  say:  "  I  too 
will  do  the  same."  I  learn  of  a  school  which  is 
teaching  a  certain  line  of  doctrine,  and  because  I 
think  it  will  pay,  and  get  me  prestige  and  popularity, 
I  adopt  it.  But  not  until  I  begin  to  notice  the  work- 
ing of  my  own  life,  shall  I  have  any  conception  how 
perpetually  the  self-life  is  underlying  all. 

HOW  GET   EID   OF  THE   SELF==LIFE? 

I  will  show  you.  There  are  three  steps :  the  cross, 
the  Spirit,  the  contemplation  of  the  risen  Christ. 
May  we  take  them  now;  may  the  Spirit  of  God  reveal 
to  each  one  this  blessed  secret! 

First,  the  cross.  Now  understand  that  I  hold  that 
on  the  cross  Jesus  Christ  offered  a  substitutionary 
sacrifice  for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world.  But  there 
is  a  second  meaning  significant  in  the  cross.  Turn 
to  Rom.  8:  3,  4:  "What  the  law  could  not 
do  in  that  it  was  weak  through  the  flesh,  God 
sending  His  own  Son  in  the  likeness  of  sinful  flesh, 
and  for  sin,  condemned  sin  in  the  flesh:  that  the 
righteousness  of  the  law  might  be  fulfilled  in  us,  who 
walk  not  after  the  flesh  but  after  the  Spirit."  God 
sent  His  own  Son  in  the  likeness  of  sinful  flesh,  and 
for  sin.      "  For   sin  "  is   substitutionary.      "  In   the 


THE  NATURAL  MAN  37 

likeness  of  sinful  flesh  "  is  the  reference  of  the  cross 
to  sanctification.  On  the  cross  God  nailed  in  the 
person  of  Christ  the  likeness  of  our  sinful  flesh. 
I  cannot  explain  it  to  you  more  than  that;  but  I 
know  this — that  next  to  seeing  Jesus  as  my  sacrifice, 
nothing  has  revolutionized  my  life  like  seeing  the 
efligy  of  my  sinful  self  in  the  sinless,  dying  Savior. 
I  say  to  myself: 

"  God  has  nailed  the  likeness  of  my  self=life  to  the 
cross.  The  cross  is  the  symbol  of  degradation  and 
curse.  Cursed  is  everyone  that  hangs  on  the  cross. 
If  then  God  has  treated  the  likeness  of  my  sinful 
self,  when  borne  by  the  sinless  Christ,  as  worthy  of 
His  curse,  how  terrible  in  God's  sight  it  must  be  for 
myself  to  hug  it  and  embrace  it  and  live  in  it! " 

Oh,  wondrous  cross!     But  that  is  not  all. 

Christ  and  I  are  one.  In  Him  I  hung  there.  I 
came  to  an  end  of  myself  in  Christ,  and  kneeling  at 
His  cross  I  took  the  position  of  union  with  Him  in 
His  death,  and  I  consigned  my  selfdife  to  the  cross. 
It  was  as  though  I  took  my  selfdife  with  its  passions, 
its  choices,  its  yearnings  after  perfection,  its  wallow- 
ing, its  fickleness,  its  judgment  of  others,  its  unchar- 
ity, — I  took  it  as  a  felon,  and  said: 

"  Thou  art  cursed,  thou  shalt  die.  My  God 
nailed  thee  to  that  cross.  Come,  thou  shalt  come. 
I  put  thee  there  by  my  choice,  by  my  will,  by  my 
faith.     Hang  there." 

After  that  moment — you  remember  in  Galatians  it 
is  the  aorist  tense:  "They  that  are  Christ's, 
crucified  the  flesh  with  its  affections  and  lusts  " — 
after  that  moment,  that  decisive  moment  in  my  life, 
I  have  ever  reckoned  that  my  self4ife  is  on  the  cross, 


38  THE  NATURAL  MAN 

and  that  the  death  of  Christ  lies  between  me  and   it. 

Let  me  make  that  perfectly  clear.  Supposing  a 
woman  has  been  married  to  a  felon,  a  drunkard,  a 
libertine.  After  years  of  sorrow  there  comes  a 
moment  of  liberty  when  she  seeks  and  obtains  a 
divorce.  She  now  enters  into  union  with  a  perfectly 
lovely  blessed  man  who  becomes  to  her  everything. 
Whenever  her  former  husband  reels  along  the  street 
and  seeks  again  to  get  her  back  into  his  power,  she 
points  to  a  moment,  the  moment  when  the  divorce 
was  granted,  and  she  says: 

''  From  that  moment  I  became  divorced  from  you. 
Touch  me  if  you  dare." 

If  he  comes  reeling  across  the  street,  she  only 
clutches  closer  the  arm  of  the  true  man  she  loves, 
and  puts  him  on  the  other  side  between  the  sot  and 
herself.     She  counts  from  the  moment  of  deliverance. 

Now  think  about  it,  pray  about  it.  Later  I  am 
going  to  publish  the  marriage-bans  between  you 
and  Christ,  and  to  show  how  Christ  takes  the  place 
of  self.  But  we  must  move  together,  my  friends. 
You  must  allow  me  to  be  persistent.  You  will  not 
benefit  by  this  teaching  unless  you  act  as  the  result 
of  any  separate  address  in  the  direction  it  indicates. 
So  kneel  down  before  the  cross  of  Jesus,  and  realize 
why  your  Christian  life  has  been  a  failure.  The 
cause  of  your  darkness  and  sorrow  and  desertion  is 
to  be  found  here:  you  have  never  consigned  the  self= 
life  where  God  consigned  it.  In  your  will,  with 
streaming  eyes,  with  reverent  face,  unite  yourself 
with  the  death  of  Christ.  Doing  so,  remember  you 
will  do  what  Jesus  said  Peter  must  do.      Peter  said: 

*'  Thou  art  the  Christ." 


THE  NATURAL  MAN  39 

"  Well  and  good,"  Christ  replied.  *'  I  am  going  to 
die. " 

Peter  said:  "  You  must  not  think  of  it.  Spare 
Thyself." 

Ah,  that  is  what  you  will  hear  said  to  you  a  thou- 
sand times, — spare  thyself! 

Jesus  said:  "  Get  thee  behind  me.  That  is  Satan: 
it  is  the  spirit  of  the  pit.  If  a  man  will  come  after 
me,  let  him  deny  himself,  and  take  up  his  cross  and 
follow  me." 

You  may  say  what  you  like  about  Christianity,  but 
I  undertake  to  affirm  it  has  been  shamefully  misre- 
presented, both  by  Protestant  and  by  any  other  class  of 
Christians.  They  have  thought  that  Christianity  de- 
pended in  the  objective,  whereas  it  is  subjective 
largely,  equally.  They  have  thought  that  it  depended 
on  trusting  Christ  to  put  away  your  sin,  whereas  it  also 
consists  in  trusting  Christ  to  deliver  you  from  your- 
selves, who  are  the   center  and   curse  of   your   life. 

Whenever  the  self^ife  obtrudes,  reckon  yourself 
dead  to  it;  reckon  that  the  cross  stands  between  you 
and  it. 

But  you  say:  "  Sir,  I  do  not  see  how  I  am  to  live 
like  that.  I  shall  always  be  on  pins  and  needles,  al- 
ways in  agony  whether  this  is  self  or  not,  and  I  do 
not  see  how  I  am  to  live." 

Ah,  I  thought  you  would  say  that!  I  said  chat  my- 
self, and  here  comes  the  second  point:  the  Holy 
Spirit. 

''If  ye  through  the  Spirit  do  mortify  the  deeds  of 
the  body,  ye  shall  live."  And  again:  "The  Spirit 
lusteth  against  the  flesh." 

It  was  by  the  Eternal   Spirit  that  Christ  offered 


40  THE  NATURAL  MAN 


Himself  without  spot  to  God,  and  it  is  by  the  Eter- 
nal Spirit  that  the  cursed  spirit  of  self  is  going  to  be 
antagonized  in  your  life  and  mine.  Just  as  in  a  scar- 
let^fever  case  you  take  carbolic  acid,  and  the  carbolic 
acid  antagonizes  the  germs  of  disease,  so  turning 
from  that  curse  I  kneel  before  the  Holy  Ghost,  and 
say: 

'' Spirit  of  God,  infill,  infill,  INFILL  my  entire 
being,  deeper,  deeper,  deeper  yet.  In  the  depth  of 
my  nature,  when  I  am  least  thinking  about  it,  go  on 
day  by  day  as  the  antiseptic  of  my  flesh  or  selfdife. 
Antagonize  it,  work  against  it,  keep  it  out  of  sight, 
keep  it  under  Christ." 

The  Holy  Ghost  will  do  it. 

But  you  say:  "  Mr.  Meyer,  I  am  so  afraid  that  if 
I  am  always  dealing  with  the  selMife,  it  will  hurt  me. 
It  will  be  like  standing  by  a  bier  and  seeing  death 
disintegrate  a  corpse." 

This  leads  me  to  my  third  point,  and  I  reply,— and 
this  is  the  beauty  of  it,— that  whilst  the  Spirit  of  God 
in  the  depth  of  your  heart  is  antagonizing  the  self=life, 
He  does  it  by  making  Jesus  Christ  a  living  bright 
reality.  He  fixes  your  thoughts  upon  Jesus.  You 
do  not  think  about  the  Spirit,  you  hardly  think  about 
self,  but  you  think  much  about  your  dear  Lord;  and 
all  the  time  that  you  are  thinking  about  Him,  the 
process  of  disintegration  and  dissolution  and  death 
of  self  is  going  on  within  your  heart. 

A  dear  sister  said  to  me  once:  "I  am  going  to 
spend  a  whole  day  praying  for  the  Holy  Ghost." 

She  went  to  a  hut  in  a  wood,  and  she  came  back  to 
me  at  night  and  said: 

"  I  have  had  a  grand  day,  but  I  am  a  bit  disap- 


THE  NATURAL  MAN  41 

pointed.  I  do  not  feel  that  I  have  more  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  now  than  I  did." 

"But,"  I  said,  "  is  Jesns  much  to  you?" 

"  O,"  she  replied,  "  Jesus  never  was  so  sweet  and 
precious  as  He  is  now." 

"  Why,  my  dear  woman,"  I  said,  "  that  is  the  Holy 
Ghost,  because  He  glorifies  Christ,  and  when  the 
Holy  Ghost  works  most,  you  do  not  think  about  the 
Holy  Ghost,  but  you  think  about  your  dear  Lord." 

O,  man  and  woman,  forgive  me!  It  is  a  very  bro- 
ken, broken  way  of  putting  the  deepest  mystery  in  the 
Bible,  but  I  can  only  ask  that  the  Holy  Spirit  may 
make  you  know  what  it  is  to  have  Jesus  as  the  center 
and  origin  of  your  life.  The  fountain  and  origin 
hitherto  has  been  self,  has  it  not?  O  cursed  self, 
Barabbas,  Barabbas,  to  the  cross!  The  world  says: 
"Not  Christ,  but  Barabbas,  self."  The  Christian 
says:  "Not  Barabbas,  but  Christ." 

May  God  explain  this  to  you,  for  His  name's 
sake. 


FOURTH    ADDRESS 

THE  SUBSTITUTION  OF  THE  CHRIST-LIFE 
FOR  THE  SELF-LIFE. 

In  my  second  address  we  saw  that  the  will  is  our 
main  and  chief  impediment.  We  are  not  what  we 
feel,  or  think,  or  icish,  but  what  we  loill.  In  the  pre- 
ceding address  we  saw  that  our  curse  lies  in  making 
self  the  pivot  of  our  life,  and  that  the  one  aim  of  Chris- 
tianity is  to  put  Christ  where  man  puts  self.  I  want 
now  to  show  shortly,  concisely,  with  the  power  of 
God's  Spirit  who  cooperates,  how  this  may  be  done, 
and  I  am  going  to  use  the  Epistle  of  Galatians. 

In  Gal.  5: 19,  we  have  the  works  of  self:  ''  Adultery, 
fornication,  uncleanness,  lasciviousness,  idolatry, 
witchcraft,  hatred,  variance,  emulations,  wrath,  strife, 
seditions,  heresies,  envyings,  murders,  drunkenness, 
revelings,  and  such  like."  Wherever  man's  nature 
works  itself  out,  the  lust  of  the  flesh  shows  itself  in 
every  casino,  saloon  and  house  of  ill=fame, 

Turn  to  Gal.  3:3:  "  Are  ye  so  foolish?  Having  be- 
gan in  the  Spirit,  are  ye  now  made  perfect  by  the 
flesh?"  Will  you  be  made  perfect  in  the  flesh?  In 
the  regenerate  man,  the  church=m  ember,  there  is  the 
same  principle  of  selfTife;  and  though  you  do  not 
find  him  in  a  den  of  drink  or  lust  or  infamy,  the 
same  principle  which  is  working  unrestrained  and 
unbridled  there  is  working  in  his  heart  also.    He 

42 


CHRIST'LIFE  FOR  THE  SELF-LIFE  43 

gives  to  the  collection,  to  the  subscription  list,  that 
men  may  see  how  much  he  gives.  He  seeks  to  please 
God  by  prayer,  by  the  communion,  by  ritualistic  obser- 
vances. He  will  even  try  to  be  perfect.  There  is 
many  a  man  who  goes  to  Keswick  and  to  North  field, 
trying  to  pile  up  his  religious  life  in  the  energy  of 
his  religious4ooking  self.  But  I  repeat  it:  the  curse 
of  the  Christian  and  of  the  world  is  that  self  is  our 
pivot;  it  is  because  Satan  made  self  his  pivot  that 
he  became  a  devil.  Take  heaven  from  its  center  in 
God,  and  try  to  center  it  in  self,  and  you  transform 
heaven  into  hell.  I  know  little  or  nothing  about  the 
fire,  or  the  darkness,  or  the  worm  of  hell.  Hell  is 
selfishness,  and  selfishness  is  hell.      And 

THE   PHILOSOPHY   OF   THE   BIBLE 

is  to  do  away  with  self,  and  to  make  Christ  all  in  all. 

When  I  am  dealing  with  a  drunkard  I  am  inclined 
to  say  to  him: 

"  Be  a  man." 

What  a  fool  I  am!  I  am  trying  to  cast  out  the 
evil  of  drink  by  the  evil  of  self=esteem.  If  I  want  to 
save  a  man,  I  must  cast  out  the  spirit  of  self,  and 
substitute  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Alpha,  Omega,  all 
in  all. 

But  how?     How? 

This  ei^istle  to  the  Galatians  is  my  battle-axe. 
Luther  used  it  for  justification,  but  I  think  it  is  for 
sanctification. 

How  ?  By  the  cross,  and  by  the  cross  as  presented 
in  the  epistle  to  the  Galatians. 

The  Apostle  tells  us  in  Gal.  1:4:  "  Jesus  Christ, 
who  gave  Himself  for  our  sins,  that  He  might  de- 


44:  CHRIST^LIFE  FOR  THE  SELF  LIFE 

liver  US  from  this  present  evil  world,  according  to  the 
will  of  God  and  our  Father."  He  considers  the 
cross  in  its  aspect  toward  sanctification.  He  says: 
"  He  delivered  us  from  this  present  evil  world."  In 
Romans  we  have  the  cross  for  justification,  the 
putting=away  of  sin;  in  Galatians  for  sanctification, 
the  cross  standing  between  me  and  my  past,  between 
me  and  the  world,  between  me  and  myself:  the  cross, 
and  I  count  from  that  cross.  That  is  the  ground 
taken  in  Galatians. 

Take  Gal.  2:20:  "I  have  been  crucified  with 
Christ."  God  demands  that  every  man  and  woman 
should  unite  with  the  cross,  and  (so  to  speak)  kill 
the  self4ife,  the  egotism,  the  personal  element  which 
has  been  so  strong  in  each  one.  Not  your  individ- 
uality, however.  Isaiah  will  still  be  Isaiah,  and  Mal- 
achi,  Malachi;  but  the  proud,  fussy  self=esteem,  your- 
self, ego,  the  flesh,  must  be  crucified.  Christ  denied 
His  divine  self,  and  you  and  I  must  deny  our  fallen 
self.  Christ's  temptation  was  to  use  His  divine  at- 
tribute; your  temptation  is  that  you  should  use  your 
human  attribute.  You  must  put  it  to  the  cross,  and 
believe  that  from  this  moment  it  shall  be  crucified  to 
you  and  you  to  it.  Barabbas  to  the  cross,  to  the 
cross!  Christ,  come  down  from  the  cross  and  live 
in  here! 

Gal.  5:  24:  The  aorist:  ''They  that  are  Christ's 
crucified  the  flesh."  Gal.  6: 14:  "  God  forbid  that  I 
should  glory  save  in  the  cross  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  by  whom  the  world  is  crucified  unto  me,  and 
I  unto  the  world."  The  world  looks  at  me  as  a  felon, 
but  I  have  my  revenge.  That  by  which  I  am  cruci- 
fied to  the  world,  by  that  the  world  is  crucified  to  me. 


CHRIST-LIFE  FOR  THE  SELF^LIFE  45 

It  may  say  what  it  likes  about  me.  I  retaliate: 
"Take  it  back;  it  is  all  true  of  thyself." 

This  wonderful  epistle  speaks  of  the  cross  as  be- 
tween me  and  Egypt,  between  me  and  the  wilderness, 
between  me  and  my  past,  my  wanderings;  and  now 
the  cross  is  my  Jordan  by  which  I  pass  through 
death  into  the  land  where  Joshua  leads,  the  land  that 
flows  with  milk  and  honey. 

This  epistle  also  treats  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  be- 
cause as  I  have  said  before,  it  is  only  the  Holy  Spirit 
that  can  make  your  reckoning  true.  You  choose  the 
cross,  but  the  Holy  Spirit  as  it  were  mortifies,  makes 
dead,  makes  real.  You  reckon.  He  makes  real  your 
reckoning.  And  hence  Gal.  5:  17:  "  The  flesh 
lusteth  against  the  Spirit,  and  the  Spirit  against 
the  flesh:  and  these  are  contrary  the  one  to  the  other: 
so  that  ye  cannot  do  the  things  that  ye  would." 
Gal.  5: 16:  "  Walk  in  the  Spirit";  5: 18:  "Be  led  of 
the  Spirit";  5:  25:  "Live  in  the  Spirit."  And  whilst 
you  walk  in  the  Spirit,  are  led  of  the  Spirit,  and 
live  in  the  Spirit,  the  Holy  Spirit  will  go  on  lusting 
and  agonizing  and  making  real  to  you  your  reckon- 
ing of  death. 

You  have  not  therefore  got  to  worry  about  the 
death  side;  think  about  the  life  side.  Do  not  live 
looking  at  the  corpse,  but  live  looking  to  the 
Holy  Ghost;  and  as  you  trust  Him  for  every  move- 
ment, as  you  breathe  in  the  Holy  Ghost  moment  by 
moment  as  you  breathe  in  air,  in  the  depth  of  your 
heart  He  will  draw  you  away  from  the  flesh,  the  self, 
the  world,  the  devil;  and  insensibly,  unconsciously, 
exquisitely,  He  will  bring  you  into  life.  And  the 
more  you  live  on  the  life  side,  the  more,  without 


46  CRRIST'LIFE  FOR  THE  SELF-LIFE 

knowing  much  of  it,  you  will  live  on  the  death  side; 
for  whilst  you  are  engrossed  with  the  Holy  Ghost, 
the  Holy  Ghost  in  the  depth  of  your  being  is  carry- 
ing the  sentence  of  death  deeper,  deeper,  deeper 
down,  and  things  are  being  mortified  of  which  you 
once  had  no  conception. 

Now  listen:  If  you  choose  the  cross,  if  you  live  in 
the  Spirit,  the  Spirit  lusts,  (always  the  present 
tense),  lusteth  against  the  flesh.  I  do  not  know  how 
your  Bible  reads,  but  some  Bibles  are  printed  wrong. 
"  The  flesh  lusteth  against  the  Spirit,  and  the  Spirit 
against  the  flesh,"  and  "  Spirit"  is  spelt  with  a  small 
s.  Take  some  ink  and  alter  that.  It  is  not  "spirit" 
with  a  small  s;  it  is  "  Spirit"  v/ith  a  capital  S,  the 
Holy  Spirit.  "  The  flesh,  the  self,  lusts  against  the 
Holy  Spirit,  and  the  Holy  Spirit  lusts  against  the 
flesh." 

Now,  let  us  look  at  five  texts  in  Galatians  on  the 
inner  life,  the  indwelling  of  Christ. 

(1.)  Gal.  1:15,  16:  "When  it  pleased  God,  who 
separated  me  from  my  mother's  womb,  and  called 
me  by  His  grace,  to  reveal  His  Son  in  me,  that  I 
might  preach  Him  among  the  heathen;  immediately 
I  conferred  not  with  flesh  and  blood."  ''  It  pleased 
God  to  reveal  His  Son  in  me."  Now,  "  to  reveal  " 
means  "  to  undrape."  There  is  a  statue.  It  is  cov- 
ered with  a  veil.  It  is  there,  but  hidden.  I  take  off 
the  veil,  and  you  see  it.  When  you  were  regenerate, 
Christ  came  unto  you:  that  is  what  regeneration  means 
— Christ  born  into  your  spirit.  But  Christ  came  in 
as  a  veiled  figure,  and  you  who  are  regenerate  but 
who  have  never  seen  the  Christ  as  I  put  Him  before 
you  in  the  last  address,  you  have  Christ  in  you,  but 


CHRIST-LIFE  FOR  THE  SELF' LIFE  47 

He  is  veiled.  Now,  mark.  When  Jesus  died,  the 
veil  of  the  temple  was  rent  in  twain  from  the  top  to 
the  bottom;  and  when  the  soul  appreciates  the  death 
of  Christ  as  its  own  death  to  sin,  the  veil  is  rent  in 
twain  from  the  top  to  the  bottom,  and  the  Holy  Ghost 
reveals  Jesus  as  the  substitute  for  the  self=life. 

"  It  pleased  God  to  reveal  His  Son  in  me."  O,  my 
God,  I  thank  Thee  that  Thou  hast  revealed  Thy  Son 
as  the  Alpha,  the  i^ivot,  the  fountain,  the  origin  of 
my  life!     May  it  be  so  with  us  all! 

A  friend  of  mine  was  staying  near  Mont  Blanc. 
He  had  been  there  for  a  fortnight,  but  had  not  seen 
the  "  monarch  of  the  Alps."  Nearly  out  of  heart 
with  waiting,  he  was  preparing  to  leave.  Going  up 
to  dress  for  dinner,  he  passed  a  window  and  saw  that 
the  monarch  was  still  veiled  in  mist.  Having  dressed, 
he  came  down  stairs,  passing  the  window  again. 
Every  vestige  of  mist  had  now  parted,  and  Mont 
Blanc  stood  revealed  from  base  to  snow-clad  peak. 
So  now  there  shall  come  upon  you  a  breath  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  before  which  the  misconception  of  your 
life  shall  pass,  and  to  you  God  will  reveal  His  Son  in 
you  as  the  center  of  your  life. 

Turn  for  a  moment  to  Col.  1 :  27,  a  very  favorite 
passage:  "To  whom  God  would  make  known  what 
is  the  riches  of  the  glory  of  this  mystery  among  the 
Gentiles;  which  is  Christ  in  you,  the  hope  of  glory." 

A  woman  sits  alone.  Her  son  ran  away  to  sea 
twenty  years  ago.  She  is  a  widow,  poor,  lonely.  A 
bronzed  stranger  comes. 

"Can  I  sleep  in  your  spare  room?" 

"  I  have  a  room  to  let,  so  you  can  stay." 

He  comes  in  disguised,  so  that  she  cannot  see  him. 


48  CHRIST-LIFE  FOR  THE  SELF-^LIFE 

He  is  there,  but  she  knows  him  not.  One  day  they 
sit  together  at  dinner,  and  there  is  a  gesture,  and  she 
says: 

''John!" 

That  is  the  glory  of  the  mystery  when  the  two 
kiss. 

"My  boy!" 

"My  mother!" 

Then  after  dinner  he  says:  "Mother,  you  shall 
never  lack  again.  Here  is  gold.  I  am  going  to  live 
with  you,  never  to  go  away  again." 

That  is  the  riches  of  the  glory  of  the  mystery  of 
her  boy  in  the  house. 

Jesus,  come!  You  have  come,  but  You  are  a  mys- 
tery. But  we  have  come  to  the  cross,  and  the  mys- 
tery is  gone,  and  there  is  the  glory  of  the  day;  but 
there  will  be  the  riches  of  the  glory  of  the  mystery, 
Christ  in  us;  and  He  will  do  for  us  better  than  ever 
we  could  have  done  for  ourselves.  * 

(2.)  Gal.  1:24:  "They  glorified  God  in  me." 
Some  young  men  belonging  to  the  Salvation  Army 
came  to  old  Andrew  Bonar,  and  they  said : 

"  Dr.  Bonar,  we  have  been  all  night  with  God. 
Can't  you  see  our  faces  shine?  " 

The  old  man  said:  "  Moses  wist  not  that  his  face 
shone." 

When  you  have  got  the  real  article  you  do  not  need 
to  advertise  it,  the  public  will  come  for  it;  but  the  man 
who  has  got  what  we  call  in  England,  Brummagem 
ware,  a  sham,  must  puff  it.  If  you  have  got  Christ 
in  you,  people  will  not  glorify  you,  they  will  glorify 
Christ  in  you,  and  they  will  say: 

"  Teach  us  about  Christ  who  has  made  you  so  fair." 


CHRIST-LIFE  FOR  THE  SELF'LIFE  49 

"  They  glorified  God  in  me."  Dear  brother  min- 
isters, ^yhen  you  get  this,  they  will  not  glorify  your 
sermons,  they  will  not  glorify  your  intellect,  and  they 
will  not  glorify  your  eloquence ;  but  they  will  glorify 
God  who  shines  through  you  as  the  Shekinah  shone 
through  the  temple  of  old. 

(3.)  Gal.  2:8:  "The  same  was  mighty  in  me." 
Hudson  Taylor  told  me  that  on  the  threshhold  of  his 
great  life- work  God  came  to  him  and  said: 

"  My  child,  I  am  going  to  evangelize  inland  China, 
and  if  you  like  to  walk  with  me  I  will  do  it  through 
you." 

"  Mighty  in  me."  I  cannot  take  that  Bible  class, 
but  Christ  is  in  me,  and  He  can.  I  cannot  conduct 
that  mission,  but  Christ  is  in  me,  and  He  can.  I 
cannot  assume  these  responsibilities,  but  hallelujah! 
it  does  not  matter.  A  copper  wire  has  only  to  convey 
the  message,  it  is  for  the  battery  to  send  it;  and  you 
may  be  forever  more  like  the  wire  which  connects 
you  with  cities  far  down  its  course,  the  wire  along 
which  the  fair  and  the  false  passes  without  fret,  with- 
out anxiety,  without  care,  a  mighty,  mighty  force 
meeting  in  the  wire.  When  it  is  not  self  but  Christ, 
it  is  Christ  "  mighty  in  me." 

(4.)  Gal.  2:20:  "Christ  liveth  in  me."  One  day 
when  traveling  by  train,  a  young  man  sat  oppo- 
site me  in  the  car,  reading  Thomas  a  Kempis  '  "  Im- 
itation of  Christ."  I  knew  the  book,  and  sat  beside 
him  and  said: 

"  A  grand  book." 

He  said:  "Yes." 

Said  I:  "I  have  found  something  better." 

"Better?" 


50  CHRIST'^LIFE  FOR  THE  SELF^LIFE 

"  Yes." 

"How?" 

"  Better  for  me,  because  I  was  always  a  poor  hand 
at  imitation.  I  imitated  the  minister  with  whom  I 
settled  from  college,  and  nobody  but  myself  and  my 
wife  ever  guessed  that  my  sermons  were  imitations 
of  his.  When  I  was  a  boy,  my  father  had  me  taught 
drawing,  and  my  master  put  before  me  something, 
and  my  copy  needed  to  have  letter^press  underneath 
to  state  it  was  an  imitation  of  the  copy.  And  when 
I  sat  dov/n  to  imitate  Christ,  no  one  could  have 
guessed  what  I  was  trying  to  attain.  But,"  said  I, 
"  my  young  friend,  if  my  drawing-master  could  have 
infused  the  spirit  of  his  skill  into  my  brain  and  hand, 
he  could  have  drawn  through  me  as  fair  a  drawing 
as  his  own;  and  if  my  great  and  noble  friend  could 
have  only  put  his  spirit  into  me,  why  should  I  not 
have  spoken  even  as  he?  And  if  instead  of  imitating 
Christ  far  away  in  the  glory,  He  will  come  by  the 
Holy  Ghost  and  dwell  in  me,  by  His  grace  He  shall 
work  through  my  poor  yielded  life,  a  life  something 
like  His  own  fair  life."     Christ  liveth  in  me. 

Many  have  no  idea  what  religion  is.  Re-ligion, 
re-ligo,  a  Latin  word  meaning  "  I  bind," — it  is  the 
binding  of  the  heart  to  the  Lord.  No,  I  recall  that; 
it  is  better:  "He  that  is  joined  to  the  Lord  is  one 
spirit."  O  Christ,  Thou  art  one  with  me,  to  make  me 
one  with  Thee  world  without  end ! 

(5)  One  verse  more.  Gal.  4:19:  "My  little  chil- 
dren, of  whom  I  travail  in  birth  again  until  Christ  be 
formed  in  you."  You  know,  of  course,  that  an  egg 
has  in  it  a  little  embryo  of  life,  and  the  nutriment, 
the  viscous  fluid  upon  which  it  shall  grow;  and  every 


CHRIST-LIFE  FOR  THE  SELF-^LIFE  61 

day  the  little  life  germ  pecks  into  this  more  and 
more,  and  the  chick  is  formed  in  the  shell.  Until 
now  there  has  been  a  good  deal  more  of  other  elements 
in  your  life  than  of  Christ,  but  from  now  the  Christ 
is  going  to  grow  and  increase  and  absorb  into  Him- 
self everything  else,  and  be  formed  in  you. 

Brother  ministers,  will  you  forgive  that  I  have 
stated  the  truths  of  Christ's  holy  gospel  so  imperfect- 
ly? How  can  human  words  tell  what  Christ  is  pre- 
pared to  be?  But  let  me  entreat  you  to  pass  by  a 
great  deal  of  political  life,  and  it  may  be,  (though  it 
is  not  wrong),  of  the  social  life  around  you;  and  I 
charge  you  to  live  to  preach  the  deep  philosophy  of 
the  indwelling  Christ,  and  let  men  know  what  Jesus 
meant  when  He  said: 

"  In  that  day  ye  shall  know  that  I  am  in  the  Fath- 
er, and  ye  in  me,  and  I  in  you." 


FIFTH     ADDRESS 

CHRIST  THE  COMPLEMENT  OF  OUR  NEED 

We  have  now  dealt  with  the  will,  and  have  seen 
that  our  curse  is  the  selMife.  We  have  also  learned 
that  Jesus  Christ  can  take  the  place  of  self.  I  want 
now  to  show  what  Jesus  Christ  can  be,  and  may  the 
Holy  Spirit  glorify  Christ! 

I  Cor.  10: 11:  "Now  all  these  things  happened  un- 
to them  for  ensamples:  and  they  are  written  for  our 
admonition,  upon  whom  the  ends  of  the  world  are 
come." 

Once  we  were  in  Egypt.  Every  one  who  has  been 
redeemed  by  the  blood  of  Christ  was  once  in  Egypt. 
Egypt  stands  for  three  things:  (1)  sensual  pleasure, 
leeks,  garlics,  onions;  (2)  bondage,  the  taskmaster, 
the  brick,  and  the  treasure  city;  and  (3)  anguish  of 
soul.  I  suppose  there  is  not  one  now  in  Christ  that 
does  not  remember  the  sensual  pleasure,  the  bondage 
and  the  anguish  of  soul.  Out  of  that  God  has 
brought  us.  He  brought  us  when  He  brought  Christ 
through  death  to  resurrection,  and  He  brought  us 
when  each  one  (as  it  were)  was  sheltered  beneath  the 
Paschal  Lamb,  and  the  blood  spoke  to  God.  Oh 
blessed  moment  when  we  entered  into  peace,  when 
we  put  the  blood  upon  the  door-post  and  the  lintel, 
and  because  God  saw  the  blood  we  were  ransomed, 
and  in  joy  went  forth  from  the  land  of  bondage! 
And  as  we  stood  upon  the  further  shore  of  the  Red 

52 


CHRIST  THE  COMPLEMENT  OF  OUR  NEED  53 

Sea  we  repeated  Miriam's  Song,  we  rejoiced  in  God 
our  Savior.  We  gave  ourselves  up  to  follow  the 
cloud,  we  sheltered  beneath  it  by  day  and  by  night. 
We  depended  upon  God  for  everything — for  the  wa- 
ter that  gushed  from  the  rock,  and  the  manna  that 
fell  upon  the  desert  floor.  O  happy,  happy,  hapjpy 
days  when  we,  fresh  redeemed  and  with  the  conscious- 
ness of  liberty,  walked  with  God  in  the  first  hours  of 
our  conversion! 

Then  we  came  beneath  Sinai.  We  obtained  a  new 
thought  of  God's  holiness  and  righteousness,  and  as 
we  first  came  there  we  said  with  all  the  fervor  of  a 
true  intention:  "Whatever  God  says,  we  will  do." 
But  our  joy  began  to  pass  away,  for  as  we  tried  to 
keep  the  law  of  God  we  fell  hour  by  hour  into  sin 
that  we  loathed.  It  was  the  experience  of  the  sev- 
enth chapter  of  Romans.  After  the  inward  man  we 
loved  the  law  of  God,  but  when  we  came  to  do  what 
we  would  we  found  we  could  not.  We  were  like 
men  raised  from  some  illness,  who  know  how  to  walk 
perfectly  well,  but  when  they  begin  they  totter,  and 
presently  fall  to  the  ground. 

After  staying  there,  we  heard  the  command  of  God 
to  arise  and  depart,  and  after  some  days  we  came  to 
Kadesh'barnea.  Now  Kadesh  is  on  the  frontier  of 
the  land  of  Canaan.  At  Kadesh  the  rolling  prairie 
sinks  into  the  sand  and  waste  of  the  desert.  At  Ka- 
desh you  looked  back  on  Egypt,  and  forward  into 
Palestine.  To  Kadesh  there  came  spies,  bringing 
in  their  hands  baskets  full  of  fruit  which  they  had 
gathered  in  the  Land  of  Promise,  grapes,  pomegran- 
ites,  apricots,  sweet  and  luscious  fruit.  At  Kadesh 
you  passed  them  round,  you  ate,  you  said; 


54  CHRIST  THE  COMPLEMENT  OF  OUR  NEED 

"  It  is  a  good  land." 

Many  of  you  have  been  to  Kadesh.  You  took 
lodgings  there — at  Northfield,  at  Keswick  conven- 
tions; and  men  who  have  been  over  into  the  Land  of 
Promise  came  back,  and  in  their  addresses  and  books 
they  gave  you  a  basket  of  fruit,  and  you  said: 

"  It  is  very  good." 

But  there  you  stopped,  and  instead  of  going  over 
the   frontier  and  living  in  the  land,   you  have  gone 

BACK    TO   THE   DESERT. 

Why  did  Israel  stop  there?  Because  she  did  not 
believe  God.  She  believed  that  God  could  bring  her 
from  Egypt,  but  she  could  not  believe  that  God  could 
bring  her  to  Canaan.  She  believed  in  the  God  of 
the  past,  but  she  could  not  believe  in  the  God  of 
every  moment.  She  had  an  evil  heart  of  unbelief, 
and  departed  from  the  living  God. 

You  believe  in  Calvary,  but  not  in  the  ascension. 
You  believe  in  Christ  who  died,  but  not  in  Christ 
who  rose  and  lives.  You  believe  in  conversion  as  a 
past  fact,  but  you  have  no  idea  that  He  who  converted 
you  is  prepared  hour  by  hour  to  bring  you  into  and 
to  keep  you  in  the  Land  of  Rest. 

The  wilderness  stands  for  three  things. 

First.  Restlessness;  a  redeemed  people,  but  rest- 
less. There  is  a  chapter  in  Numbers,  and  thirty=three 
times  in  it  we  are  told  that  the  people  removed.  That 
has  been  your  life  for  years,  to  and  fro,  trying  this 
church  and  that,  this  minister  and  that  minister,  but 
all  the  while  certain  that  you  have  not  got  God's  rest. 

Secondly.  It  stands  for  discontent;  they  mur- 
mured. And  what  a  murmuring  life  yours  is!  You 
have  got  riches,  love,  happy,  hapjoy  surroundings,  but 


CHRIST  THE  COMPLEMENT  OF  OUR  NEED  55 

there  is  always  something  that  you  want  altered. 
Discontent!  If  it  is  summer,  it  is  too  hot.  If  it  is 
winter,  it  is  too  cold.  If  you  have  love  you  want 
money,  and  if  you  have  money  you  want  love.  Back- 
wards and  forwards,  full  of  restless  murmuring  and 
discontent.     That  has  been  your  life  as  a  Christian. 

Thirdly.  It  stands  for  back^yearning,  yearning 
backwards.  The  people  had  come  out  of  Egyx)t,  but 
they  were  always  thinking  about  it.  And  your  life  is 
a  negative  life.  You  are  out  of  Egyj)t,  but  you  go  as 
near  Egypt  as  you  can,  and  you  look  over  into  the 
pleasures  of  Egypt,  you  look  over  into  the  doings 
of  Egypt,  you  look  over  into  the  passions  and  sins 
of  Egypt,  and  though  you  are  out  of  it  your  heart 
hungers  after  it.  You  are  a  Christian,  but  a  worldly 
man  has  a  happier  time  than  you,  for  the  worldly 
man  has  never  had  a  glimpse  of  what  you  have.  He 
is  contented.  You  have  enough  religion  to  make  you 
wretched. 

What  next?  You  came  to  Jordan.  The  poet  has 
taught  us  to  think  that  Jordan  means  death,  the  death 
of  the  body;  but  that  is  a  false  conception.  In  God's 
imagery  the  Jordan  stands  for  death,  but  not  the 
death  of  the  body,  but  death  to  the  self-life.  I  trust 
I  have  made  it  clear  that  I  do  not  believe  that  self 
ever  dies.  I  do  not  believe  in  the  eradication  of  self, 
but  I  believe  we  come  to  the  cross,  to  Jordan,  and  we' 
put  the  cross,  the  death  of  Christ,  between  ourselves 
and  our  past  life.  We  pass  through  the  Jordan  in 
our  own  experience  when  we  unite  ourselves  with 
Christ's  death,  and  are  planted  with  Him  in  the  like- 
ness of  His  death.  After  that  we  stand  in  the  land 
of  Canaan. 


56  CHRIST  THE  COMPLEMENT  OF  OUR  NEED 

At  Kadesh  you  looked  over,  but  now  you  are  in. 
You  do  not  feel  much.  When  you  awoke  you  thought 
you  would  feel  joy,  but  it  is  not  so.  You  are  quiet 
and  still.  Nevermind!  A  man  may  cross  the  equa- 
tor and  not  know  it.  The  equator  is  marked  on  the 
map,  but  not  on  the  ocean,  and  a  man  may  cross  it 
and  not  knov*^  it.  Without  emotion  or  passion,  rely- 
ing upon  the  Holy  Ghost  to  make  your  reckoning 
true,  you  have  passed  Jordan,  you  are  now  in  the 
land. 

AND   WHAT   IS   THE   LAND? 

The  land  is  Christ.  Canaan  is  Christ.  He  is  the 
Land  of  Promise.  'Those  mountains  are  the  moun- 
tains of  His  strength.  Those  valleys  are  His  humil- 
ity. Those  springs  are  His  joy.  Those  rivers  are 
His  Holy  Spirit,  Those  treasures  are  His  wealth. 
That  land — look  at  it!  It  is  all  yours.  It  is  Christ 
in  you,  and  you  in  Christ — that  is  Paradise. 

That  is  proved  by  Heb.  3:14:  "  We  are  made  par- 
takers of  Christ."  The  third  chapter  of  Hebrews  is 
the  wilderness  exj)erience.  The  fourth  chapter  is  the 
Christ  possession;  and  the  Apostle  says  that  we  who 
believe  are  made  to  jpartake  of  Christ.  Christ  in  us, 
Christ  around  us,  Christ  in  the  glory!  I  want  to  talk 
to  you  about  that. 

The  first  thing  to  do  is  to  get  to  know  the  land.  I 
remember  when  I  was  in  Chicago  some  one  told  me 
that  a  family  may  purchase,  or  obtain  from  your  Gov- 
ernment, a  farm  in  the  far  West.  Gathering  their 
goods  together,  a  father,  mother,  and  children  will 
travel  in  the  caravan  (as  we  would  call  it  in  Eng- 
land), to  the  far  West.  They  will  sit  in  their  house 
on  the  edge  of  their  inheritance  whilst  the  father 


CHRIST  THE  COMPLEMENT  OF  OUR  NEED  57 


surveys  it.  Leaving  his  wife  and  children,  he  climbs 
the  mountain,  and  looks  that  way  and  this  way,  down 
to  the  river,  away  to  the  mountain ;  and  all  that  tract 
is  his.  He  walks  to  and  fro.  He  says  to  himself: 
'*  It  is  a  good  land."  He  comes  back  home,  and  says 
to  his  wife: 

"  Wife,  we  have  got  a  grand  inheritance." 
That  is  the  first  thing  he  does. 
The  second  is  this.  He  gets  some  hurdles,  and 
stakes  off  a  part,  and  cultivates  it.  Next  year  he 
pushes  the  hurdles  back,  and  takes  more  and  culti- 
vates that,  and  year  after  year  he  pushes  the  hurdles 
further  back,  until  at  last  in  twenty  years  his  hurdles 
have  reached  the  extent  of  his  territory,  and  he  has 
brought  the  whole  of  it  under  cultivation. 

Now  come  with  me.  Come  climb  this  mountain, 
the  mountain  of  the  Holy  Ghost's  teaching,  and  (1) 
see  what  a  Christ  ice  have  got;  and  before  I  close  we 
will  encircle  a  little  bit  of  Christ,  we  will  (2)  take 
Hiw.  To=morrow  we  will  push  the  hurdle  further 
out,  and  take  more  of  Christ,  and  the  day  after  more, 
and  the  week  after  more,  and  year  after  year  more. 
Only  in  eternity  you  will  never  put  your  fence  of  oc- 
cupation on  the  margin  of  Christ's  fulness,  for  when 
you  have  gone  your  furthest,  still  Christ  will  be  eter- 
nally more. 

Now  see  what  Christ  is.  Look  at  1  Cor.  2:12: 
"That  we  might  know  the  things  that  are  freely 
given  to  us  of  God." 

They  tell  me  that  George  Macdonald,  wanting  to 
teach  his  children  honor  and  truth  and  trust,  places 
on  the  manteh shelf  of  the  common  room  in  their 
house,  money  enough  for  the  whole  use  of  his  family. 


58  CHRIST  THE  COMPLEMENT  OF  OUR  NEED 

If  the  wife  wants  money  she  goes  for  it,  if  the  boys 
and  girls  want  money  they  go  for  it;  whatever  want 
there  is  in  that  house  is  supplied  from  that  manteh 
shelf  deposit.  So  God  put  in  Jesus  everything  the 
soul  can  want,  and  He  says: 

"Go  and  take  it.     It  is  all  there  for  you." 

Are  you  in  sorrow?  In  Christ  there  is  joy.  Are 
you  temi3ted?  In  Christ  there  is  succor.  Are  you 
at  the  end  of  your  strength?  In  Jesus  there  is 
might.  I  recall  those  words,  however,  because  you 
might  think  that  God  gives  this  or  that  apart  from 
Christ.  Let  me  put  it  more  correctly  so:  you  take 
Christ  to  be  whatever  you  want,  and  He  is  the  sup- 
ply of  your  want,  your  need,  so  that  you  are  blessed 
with  all  spiritual  blessings  in  Christ  in  heavenly 
places.  All  that  you  want  is  in  Christ,  and  I  think 
it  is  a  good  thing  to  want  in  order  to  learn  what 
there  is  in  Christ. 

I  remember  when  I  was  a  boy  my  mother  never 
took  so  much  notice  of  me  as  when  I  was  disappoint- 
ed and  weak  and  ill  and  worn.  I  think  sometimes  I 
used  to  sham  a  bit  because  my  mother  always  did  so 
much  for  me  then.  It  is  when  you  are  weak  and 
weary,  and  your  faith  has  gone,  and  your  strength  is 
exhausted,  and  your  hopes  are  vanishing,  and  every- 
thing around  is  passing  from  your  grasp, — it  is  then 
that  God  comes  and  says:  "Child,  I  have  put  into 
Jesus  everything  your  spirit  wants";  and  though, 
like  Madam  Guion,  you  have  to  spend  ten  years  in 
jail,  Christ  will  be  friends  and  comfort  and  strength 
and  society,  and  all  you  want. 

Would  that  people  might  understand  what  Jesus 
can  be  to  the  soul, — these  people  who  have  been  go- 


CHRIST  THE  COMPLEMENT  OF  OUR  NEED  59 

ing  into  society,  to  the  play,  to  the  opera,  to  worldly 
pleasure,  into  the  old  past,  thinking  that  they  must 
obtain  peace  and  joy  in  them,  and  tiiey  are  only  dis- 
appointed! Would  that  I  could  tell  them  that  in  Je- 
sus they  have  mountains  and  lakes  and  ri^^ers  and 
streams  and  treasures  and  corn-fields  and  olive  yards, 
and  everything  a  soul  can  want  to  make  it  blessed! 
Spirit  of  God,  take  of  the  things  of  Christ  and  re- 
veal them  to  every  waiting  heart! 
I  now  want  you  to  see 

HOW   TO   TAKE, 

because  John  says  that  of  His  fulness  we  have  all  re- 
ceived, and  Paul  says  that  they  which  receive  abund- 
ance of  life  shall  reign.     Receive. 

Do  you  know  how  to  receive?  You  say: 
"  Sir,  I  suppose  you  mean,  I  need  to  pray." 
No,  sir,  I  do  not  mean  that.  You  have  been  pray- 
ing long  enough.  I  want  you  to  leave  off  praying  in 
a  sense,  and  to  begin  taking.  There  is  all  the  dif- 
ference in  the  world  between  praying  for  Christ,  and 
taking  Christ.  I  will  explain.  Years  ago,  I  w^as 
staying  with  Canon  Wilberforce  at  Southampton — 
it  was  in  the  first  flush  of  my  new  surrender.  One 
autumn  night  he  said: 

"We  will  sit  around  the  fire  and  give  our  experi- 
ences." 

Lord  Radstock  sat  next  to  me,  and  he  commenced. 
I  followed,  and  talked  as  a  young  convert  to  this 
great  teaching  will  talk — a  good  deal  about  my  sur- 
render to  Christ.  An  old  clergyman  who  sat  on  the 
other  side  of  the  circle,  arose  and  said: 

"  I  am  very  startled  that  Mr.  Meyer  has  nothing 


60  CHRIST  THE  COMPLEMENT  OF  OUR  NEED 

better  than  that.  To  hear  him  talk  you  would  sup- 
pose that  we  had  only  got  to  give  up.  Now  my  relig- 
ion is  taking  in,  taking  in  first,  and  dropping  and 
giving  up  afterwards." 

When  you  get  gold  you  part  with  dross,  and  when 
you  get  real  diamonds  you  part  with  paste.  Get 
Christ,  and  the  world  attracts  you  no  more.  Give 
me  sunlight,  and  I  will  dispense  with  electric  light. 
Give  me  the  light  of  day,  I  need  no  artificial  lumi- 
nary. 

He  continued:  "I  used  once  to  be  overcome  by 
temper.  I  fought  against  temper.  I  came  to  the 
end  of  myself  one  afternoon  when  a  number  of  chil- 
dren refused  to  listen  to  my  teaching.  I  was  on  the 
point  of  losing  my  temper,  when  I  turned  to  Christ, 
and  said:  '  Christ,  be  my  sweet  temper.'  " 

Instead  of  fighting  against  bad  temper,  he  took 
Christ  to  be  his  patience,  his  humility,  his  meekness, 
his  self-control.  I  saw  in  a  moment  that  it  was  a 
better  experience.  I  remember  next  morning  when 
Canon  Wilberforce  came  down  stairs,  as  we  stood  to- 
gether he  said: 

"What  did  you  think  of  that  last  night?" 

I  replied:  "I  think  it  will  mark  an  era  in  my 
life." 

He  said:  "It  will  do  the  same  in  mine." 

From  that  minute  I  have  tried  to  live  that  way, 
and  whatever  I  have  needed,  I  have  said:  "  Christ,  be 
this  in  me."     That  is  the  good  fruit  of  the  land. 

Will  you  take  this?  Jesus  does  love  you.  Jesus 
is  always  near  you.  I  do  not  talk  about  the  cross  so 
much  as  about  Jesus  who  was  crucified.  I  do  not 
talk  about  the  grave,  but  about  Jesus  who  rose.     I 


CHRIST  THE  COMPLEMENT  OF  OUR  NEED  61 

do  not  talk  about  the  ascension,  but  about  Jesus 
who  ascended.  He  is  with  you  and  me  always.  It 
is  not  holiness,  but  it  is  Jesus  the  holy  one.  It  is 
not  meekness,  it  is  Jesus  the  meek  one.  It  is  not 
purity,  it  is  Jesus  the  pure  one.  Jesus,  Jesus, 
Jesus!  not  it,  not  an  experience,  not  emotion,  not 
faitli,  but  Jesus. 

You  have  been  worrying  about  your  faith.  Give 
it  up!  Do  not  think  about  your  faith;  think  about 
Jesus,  and  you  will  have  faith  without  knowing  it. 
You  have  been  worrying  about  your  feeling.  It  does 
not  matter,  it  goes  up  and  down  with  the  barometer. 
Have  done  with  it,  and  live  in  the  presence  of  Jesus. 

Soul,  thou  and  Jesus  are  standing  face  to  face. 
Give  thy  whole  self  to  Him  and  He  gives  His  whole 
self  to  thee.  Go  to  your  bare  garret,  go  to  your 
dying  child,  go  to  scenes  of  trouble  and  sorrow  and 
pain,  He  goes  too.  You  have  got  the  fountain  beside 
you.  You  do  not  need  to  take  your  pitcher  and  go 
to  draw  in  some  external  well.  You  have  Jesus  in 
your  heart,  a  fountain  springing  up  to  everlasting 
life. 

O  soul,  how  rich  thou  art,  who,  passing  through 
Jordan,  hast  come  into  the  good  land  of  rest! 


SIXTH  ADDRESS 

DELIVERANCE  FROM  THE  POWER  OF  SIN 

Phil.  2:12,  13:  "Work  out  your  own  salvation 
with  fear  and  trembling.  For  it  is  God  which 
worketh  in  you  both  to  will  and  to  do  of  His  good 
pleasure." 

"  Salvation."  "  Work  out  your  own  salvation." 
There  is  a  sense  in  which  salvation  is  finished. 
There  is  another  sense  in  which  it  is  in  process. 
Finished  by  Christ  when  He  died,  and  yet  in  process 
by  the  Holy  Ghost  in  our  heart. 

Salvation  is  a  great  prize,  with  two  termini.  The 
first  terminus  is  on  the  cross,  where  Jesus  saved 
from  the  guilt,  the  penalty  of  sin;  the  second  termi- 
nus is  in  His  second  Advent,  when  the  body  will  be 
raised  and  married  to  the  spirit,  and  salvation  will  be 
complete.  But  between  His  cross  where  Jesus  put 
away  guilt,  and  the  second  Advent  where  the  body  is 
married  to  the  spirit,  between  these  two  there  is  the 
process  of  being  saved  from  the  power  and  the  love 
of  sin. 

In  Acts  2:  47,  and  1  Cor.  1: 18,  the  Revised  version 
in  each  case  speaks  of  people  being  saved.  "  The 
Lord  added  to  them  day  by  day  those  that  were 
being  saved."  "The  word  of  the  cross  is  to  them 
that  are  perishing,  foolishness:  but  unto  us  which  are 
being  saved  it  is  the  power  of  God." 

62 


DELIVERANCE  FROM  THE  POWER  OF  SIN  63 

A  man  says  to  me;  "Are  you  saved?" 

I  reply:  "I  tcYfS  saved  when  I  trusted  Christ;  I 
shall  he  saved  when  my  body  is  raised;  but  I  am 
being  saved  all  the  time."    Aye,  we  are  being  saved. 

Kemember  that  sin  is  a  parasite.  Your  little  babe 
has  got  measles,  scarlatina,  scarlet^fever;  but  measles, 
scarlatina,  scarlet^fever  are  not  native  to  it — they  are 
parasites;  and  it  is  possible  that  in  a  few  days  they 
will  pass,  and  your  child's  skin  will  be  better.  So 
sin  is  not  necessary  to  human  nature.  Adam  was 
created  without  it.  Christ,  a  man,  lived  without  it, 
and  vre  men  and  women  some  day  will  have  got  over 
our  mumps  and  measles  and  bronchitis,  and  we  shall 
be  whole. 

Sin  is  a  parasite.  Thank  God,  the  day  will  come 
when  I  shall  stand  up  before  my  God  without  a  stick 
or  stone  of  sin.  I  may  carry  some  scar  thet  sin  has 
left,  but  sin  itself  will  be  gone  forever. 

Next:  God  comes  into  your  heart  to  take  your 
side  against  the  parasite  sin. 

A  dear  friend  of  mine  told  me  that  her  boy  came 
back  from  school  with  scarlet-fever.  He  came  home 
in  a  carriage,  wrapped  in  blankets.  As  he  was 
brought  into    the  hall,  she  met   him    and  said: 

"  My  boy,  mother  has  got  a  room  upstairs  for  you 
and  herself,  and  mother  is  going  to  sit  down  by 
your  bed,  and  she  is  never  going  to  leave  it  till  you 
are  well,  and  mother  is  going  to  help  you  fight 
against  the  fever." 

And  she  shut  herself  up  in  the  bed-room  with  him. 
Do  you  think  she  loved  the  boy  less  because  he  was 
so  long  getting  well?     Once  he  said  to  her: 

"  Mother,  you    have  not  kissed  me  lately.    Don't 


64  DELIVERANCE  FROM  THE  POWER  OF  SIN 

you  love  me  quite  so  much  because  I  have  got  all 
these  marks?" 

She  kissed  him,  and  said:  "I  loved  you  before, 
but  I  think  I  love  you  better  now." 

So,  dear  soul,  cursed  with  the  sin  which  thou  hast 
taken  into  thy  heart,  God  hates  the  sin,  but  He  loves 
thee!  He  knew  all  about  it  before  He  chose  thee. 
He  will  never  be  suprised.  He  will  never  be  disap- 
pointed. He  will  never  love  you  less.  But  the  more 
sinful  you  are,  the  weaker  you  are,  the  more  often 
you  have  a  relapse  and  go  back,  the  more  often  you 
fall,  the  mother  in  God, — for  there  is  mother  as 
well  as  father  in  God, — the  mother  in  God  who  has 
come  into  your  heart  will  fight  sin  step  by  step  with 
you.  Your  weakness  will  command  His  strongest 
love. 

He  sits  down  beside  you.  The  fever  is  on  your 
head  and  body.  He  knows  it  will  take  long  vigil, 
long  care,  long  patience.  He  has  counted  the  cost; 
He  is  prepared  for  a  long  sickness.  He  has  taken 
you  in  hand,  your  passions,  your  impurity,  your  gar- 
rulous gossip,  your  sulkiness,  your  Jealousy,  your 
vainglory,  your  love  of  money,  your  love  of  sin;  God 
knows  it  all.  But  He  has  come,  and  will  never  leave 
you  for  a  moment.  If  you  will  let  Him,  He  will 
make  short  work.  If  you  resist  Him,  you  will  make 
the  work  longer.  But  He  will  never  leave  you.  He 
will  never  give  you  up,  and  however  often  you  fall,  go 
back  to  Him  again. 

Suppose  some  mother  had  a  boy  with  scarlet  fever, 
and  in  the  fever  he  got  delirous,  and  instead  of  keep- 
ing in  bed  he  kept  getting  out;  it  would  be  very  try- 
ing, very  disappointing.     He  would  throw  his  recov- 


DELIVERAXCE  FROM  THE  POWER  OF  SIX  65 

ery  back,,  but  the  mother  would  still  cling  to  him. 
She  would  be  sorry,  and  disappointed,  and  wish  he 
had  not  done  it;  but  she  would  love  him,  she  could 
not  give  the  boy  up,  she  would  bring  him  through, 

O  soul,  thou  hast  thought  ill  of  thy  God!  Thou 
hast  thought  because  thou  didst  so  often  fall  that 
God  was  tired  of  thee.  Ah!  thou  knowcst  not  that 
His  tender  mercy  is  infinite,  and  He  will  never  let 
you  go,  NEVER,  until  in  heaven  He  kisses  your  face, 
out  of  which  the  fever  and  the  brand  of  sin  have  gone 
forever.  O,  my  God,  thou  wilt  kiss  my  soul  into 
health! 

Eemember  further  that  His  purpose  is  to  deliver 
from  the  power  of  sin.  The  guilt  is  gone,  but  the 
power  remains,  and  He  can  only  deliver  from  this 
gradually.  Now,  understand  me.  People  ask  if  I 
believe  in  progressive  or  instantaneous  sanctification. 
I  reply — first,  I  do  not  believe  in  sanctification,  I  be- 
lieve in  the  Sanctifier;  I  do  not  believe  in  holiness, j, 
I  believe  in  the  Holy  One.  Not  an  it,  but  a  person; 
not  an  attribute,  but  Christ  in  my  heart.  Instanta- 
neous? Yes,  in  this  way:  that  in  a  moment  I  can  take 
up  the  true  attitude  toward  Christ;  but  progressive, 
because  stage  after  stage  He  will  carry  on  His  work 
within  me,  weaning  me,  saving  me  from  the  love  and 
the  power  of  sin,  deeper,  deeper,  deeper  down  into  my 
heart.  I  take  up  the  position  suddenly,  but  I  apply 
the  position  all  along  my  life. 

Is  not  this  true?  To=day  you  see  things  to  be 
wrong  which  five  years  ago  you  permitted,  and  five 
years  from  to-day  you  will  see  things  wrong  which 
you  now  permit.  Evidently  the  w^ork  is  progressive. 
God  sheds  light  upon  our  life.     It  is  bat  the  twilight 


66  DELIVERANCE  FROM  THE  POWER  OF  SIN 

at  first.  In  the  twilight  I  can  see  a  chair  and  a  table 
and  a  piano  and  a  chiflPonier:  that  is  all.  But  the 
twilight  merges  into  morning,  and  in  the  morning 
light  I  can  see  smaller  things:  the  ornaments,  the 
pictures  that  are  on  the  wall.  But  morning  becomes 
noon,  and  now  I  see  the  dust  which  has  gathered.  I 
could  not  see  that  in  the  twilight,  but  I  see  it  at 
noon. 

So  God  deals  with  you  and  me.  He  does  not  turn 
the  heart  upside  down,  and  empty  it  of  every  sin  at 
once.  First  the  twilight,  and  we  put  away  obvious 
sin;  then  morning,  and  we  put  away  other  sins  not 
seen  before;  then  eleven  o'clock  in  the  morning, 
and  we  put  away  deeper  sins  that  we  had  missed; 
until  it  comes  toward  meridian,  and  in  the  perfect 
light  we  put  away  more  sins,  the  small  dust  we  had 
missed.  We  see  deeper,  deeper  down,  and  every 
year  a  man  is  saved  more  completely  from  the  power 
of  known  sin.     So  it  is  gradual. 

I  think  it  is  perfectly  absurd  for  a  man  to  say  he  is 
perfectly  sanctified.  He  is  not  within  a  thousand 
miles  of  it.  Once,  when  in  Leicester,  I  was  paying 
parochial  calls,  and  dropped  in  on  a  washerwoman 
who  had  just  got  out  a  line  of  clothes.  I  congratu- 
lated my  friend  because  they  looked  so  white.  So, 
very  much  encouraged  by  her  pastor's  kind  words, 
she  asked  him  to  have  a  cup  of  tea,  and  we  sat  down. 
Whilst  we  were  taking  the  tea,  the  sky  clouded  and 
there  was  a  snow-storm;  and  as  I  came  out  the  white 
snow  lay  everywhere,  and  I  said  to  her: 

"  Your  washing  does  not  look  quite  so  clean  as  it 
did." 

"Ah,"  she  said,  "  the  washing  is  right  enough;  but 


DELIVERANCE  FROM  THE  POWER  OF  SIN  67 


what  can  stand  against  God  Almighty's  white?" 

So  you  may  think  that  you  are  clean,  because  you 
have  never  seen  God.  When  you  see  God,  your  holi- 
est day  will  seem  to  be  imperfect;  you  will  abhor 
yourself  and  repent  in  dust  and  ashes,  and  you  will 
need  to  say: 

"  Forgive  me  my  debts  as  I  forgive  my  debtors." 

SALVATION    FEOxM    KNOWN    SIN— BUT    NOT   FEOM   TEMP- 
TATION. 

Still,  up  to  the  limit  of  our  light  God  can  keep  us 
from  known  sin.  I  will  say  that  again:  up  to  the 
limit  of  our  light— twilight,  morning,  noon— up  to 
the  limit  of  our  light  God  is  able  to  keep  us  from  all 
conscious  and  knovm  sin.  But  He  will  not  keep  us 
from  temptation.  You  cannot  help  the  devil  knock- 
ing at  the  door,  but  you  can  help  inviting  him  in  to 
supper.  You  cannot  help  the  foul  vulture  flying  over 
your  head,  but  you  can  help  letting  him  make  a  nest 
in  your  hair. 

When  you  live  near  God  you  will  be  most  tempted 
of  the  devil.  Some  men  seem  to  think  they  are  not 
holy  because  they  are  tempted.  I  should  not  believe 
in  a  man's  holiness  if  he  were  not  tempted.  When  I 
was  at  school,  the  boys  used  to  avoid  certain  orchards, 
because  they  were  full  of  crab  apples;  and  you  might 
know  that  the  apples  in  those  orchards  were  sour,  or 
the  boys  would  go  for  them.  And  if  you  are  not 
tempted,  it  shows  that  your  heart  is  empty  and 
wicked,  and 

NOT   WORTH   THE   DEVIL'S   WHILE 

to  spend  his  time  over.     When    the  Spirit  of  God 
descended  upon  Christ  He  was  led  by  the  Spirit  into 


68  DELIVERANCE  FROM  THE  POWER  OF  SIN 

the  wilderness  to  be  tempted  of  the  devil — Spirit^ 
filled,  devil4empted. 

You  ask,  why  does  God  let  us  be  tempted?  I  think 
it  is  to  show  where  we  are  weak ;  that  upon  the  temp- 
tation, as  our  stepping  stone,  we  may  reach  out  for 
some  of  God's  help.  I  would  not  know  how  much  I 
needed  Christ  unless  the  devil  were  constantly  tempt- 
ing me. 

God  is  working  in  you.  The  compunction  you 
feel  when  you  sin,  the  yearning  you  feel  for  a  better 
life,  your  desire  to  go  to  a  religious  meeting,  all  are 
proofs  that  God  is  working  in  you  to  deliver  you. 
Many  a  woman  of  fashion  or  society  is,  perhaps,  liv- 
ing in  the  very  whirl  of  it,  and  yet,  poor  thing,  in  it 
she  really  wants  something  better.  My  sister,  do  not 
be  disheartened — that  is  God  working  in  you!  I  be- 
lieve you  are  a  real  child  of  His,  but  you  are  so  weak, 
and  you  do  not  like  to  stand  alone,  you  do  what  other 
women  do,  and  yet  you  hate  it  all  the  time,  and  you 
want  the  better  life.  Understand  that  God  is  work- 
ing in  you;  you  are  the  workshop  of  God. 

WORK  OUT  WHAT  GOD  WOEKS  IN 

Now,  I  come  to  my  next  point.  When  God  works 
in,  you  must  work  out.  "  Work  out  your  own  salva- 
tion with  fear  and  trembling,  for  it  is  God  that  work- 
etli  in  you." 

You  must  work  out  what  God  works  in,  and  you 
must  do  it  with  fear  and  trembling.  Let  me  explain. 
Suppose  a  great  artist  is  training  a  young  student. 
He  says  to  that  student: 

"  I  am  coming  into  your  studio  to  help  you  to= 
morrow  from  nine  till   twelve." 

It  is  a  wonderful  thing  that  this  illustrious  artist 


DELIVERANCE  FROM  THE  POWER  OF  SIN  69 

should  spend  three  hours  with  that  obscure  student; 
and  the  man  fears.  He  does  not  fear  the  teacher,  but 
he  fears  lest  he  will  miss  a  minute  of  the  teacher's 
help.  He  trembles,  not  because  he  dreads  the 
teacher,  but  because  he  is  a  miser  to  use  up  every 
hint,  every  suggestion,  every  touch.  O!  he  trembles 
lest  he  should  lose  anything.  So,  dear  soul,  listen. 
The  great  God  has  come  into  your  life  to  live  there, 
and  He  says  to  you: 

"  I  am  going  to  save  you  from  the  power  of  sin." 

How  careful  you  ought  to  be  !  When  God  speaks, 
obey.  When  God  gives  a  hint,  instantly  act  upon 
it.  Be  very  fearful  lest  by  any  word  or  act  of 
yours  you  spoil  and  thwart  and  put  back  God's. 
work  in  your  life.  Work  out  with  fear  and  trem- 
bling. 

God  in  you  will  work  to  will,  and  then  God  in  you 
will  work  to  do  what  He  wills.  First,  God  works  to 
will.  He  does  not  work  to  make  you  feel,  because 
feeling  ends  in  smoke  so  often.  God  does  not  work 
in  you  to  think,  because  you  think  and  think  again 
But  God  works  in  you  to  will.  That  is,  there  rises 
uj)  in  your  heart  a  desire  which  becomes  at  last  a 
purpose  to  be  free.  No  one  knows  it,  no  one  guesses 
it;  but  in  your  soul  there  rises  up  the  will. 

God  is  always  definite.  The  devil  confounds  us 
by  bringing  a  number  of  i:)oints  before  us,  but  when 
God  deals  with  us  He  deals  w^th  one  point  at  a  time. 
He  takes  one  sin,  one  failure,  one  incumbrance  or 
weight.  When  you  are  at  the  communion  table, 
when  you  are  alone,  when  you  are  reading  your  Bible, 
this  one  thing  comes  up.  God  works  away  there. 
Now  meet  Him  there,  and  He  will  work  in  you  to 


70  DELIVERANCE  FROM  THE  POWER  OF  SIN 

will  against  it.  That  is  the  first  thing.  That  was  so 
with  me. 

About  seventeen  years  ago,  when  God  began  to 
work  with  me,  there  was  a  thing  in  my  life  no  one 
knev/;  but  in  my  silent  hour  God  worked  in  me  to  will 
that  it  should  cease.  I  was  so  weak  I  could  not 
put  it  away. 

Blessed  be  God,  the  willing  and  the  doing  are 
from  Him,  and  by  faith  you  look  to  Him  to  do  for 
you  what  you  cannot  do  for  yourself. 

I  have  found  God  works  thus.  He  leads  me  to  see 
a  thing  to  be  wrong,  and  then  I  put  my  will  against 
it.     Whenever  it  comes  towards  me,  God  says: 

"  It  is  coming.  Hide,  hide  in  the  cleft  of  the 
Rock.     I  see  it  coming." 

It  is  like  a  chick, — a  hawk, — the  mother;  I  run — I 
hide — the  devil  finds  me  in  Christ.  And  if  I  fall 
through  not  trusting  Him  to  keep  me.  He  works  in 
me  to  be  sorry,  and  I  am  sorry;  and  then  He  works 
in  me  to  confess. 

Two  years  ago,  one  Sunday  morning,  on  coming 
down  to  my  church,  I  found  that  the  verger  had  done  a 
very  foolish  thing,  for  vergers  (though  they  live  in  the 
church)  are  not  immaculate.  I  lost  my  temper.  I  was 
going  to  preach  within  a  quarter  of  an  hour.  As  a 
result  of  losing  my  temper,  I  was  as  far  out  of  fel- 
lowship with  God  as  a  man  may  get.  My  oflBcers 
were  all  coming  in  to  pray  with  me  before  I  entered 
the  pulpit.  I  did  not  know  what  to  do.  I  knew  I 
had  fallen.  I  knew  I  dared  not  preach  God's  gospel 
until  I  was  right  with  man,  because  one  cannot  be 
more  right  with  God  than  with  his  brother  man; 
one's  position  as  a  man  is  the  guage  and  indicator 


DELIVERANCE  FROM  THE  POWER  OF  SIN  71 

of  one's  position  before  God.  I  thought  they  would 
all  think  that  I  was  crazy,  but  I  rang  the  bell,  called 
the  verger  in,  and  said  to  him; 

"  You  did  an  uncommonly  unwise  thing  just  now — 
I  cannot  take  that  back :  but  that  did  not  exonerate  me 
for  losing  my  temper.     Forgive   me. " 

The  man  looked  more  startled  than  pleased, 
but  that  did  not  matter.  I  had  done  what  was 
right,  and  my  soul  shot  into  the  blue  of  God's 
heaven  again.     God  worked  in  me  to  confess. 

A  man  loses  his  temper  with  his  wife  at  breakfast. 
He  goes  down  town.  All  the  morning  he  wishes  that 
he  had  not  done  it,  and  the  Spirit  of  God  in  him  says: 

"  Tell  her  when  you  get  home  that  you  are  sorry." 

No,  we  men  are  very  tough  material,  and  instead 
he  says: 

"  I  will  buy  her  a  basket  of  strawberries." 

He  comes  with  his  little  peace-offering.  She,  poor 
dear,  understands  it.  She  has  lived  long  enough  to 
know  that  he  is  only  mortal,  and  she  takes  the  offering 
as  an  apology.  But  he  would  have  been  a  manlier  and 
a  happier  and  a  more  Christlike  man  if  he  had   said: 

"  Wife,  I  am  a  minister,  I  am  an  elder,  I  am  a  good 
man  really,  but  I  was  away  from  God,  and  the  devil 
tripped  me  up.  Forgive  me,  sweetheart,  forgive 
me." 

That  would  be  the  best  way.  And  when  God 
works  in  you  to  confess,  confess !  Confess  to  man,  to 
woman,  to  child,  to  servant,  to  Him;  and  His  blood 
will  wash  you  whiter  than  snow. 

How  long  does  it  take  between  confession  and  for- 
giveness? When  I  was  a  boy  at  school  and  talked  to 
the  boy  next  to  me,  they  sent  me  down  to  the  bottom 


72  DELIVERANCE  FROM  THE  POWER  OF  SIN 

of  the  class,  and  it  took  me  a  month  to  work  up. 
When  you  do  wrong  and  confess  it.  God  does  not  put 
you  down  and  leave  you  to  work  up  for  a  whole 
month,  but  on  the  spot,  immediately,  He  forgives  you 
and  restores  your  soul,  and  puts  you  back  where  you 
were  before  you  fell. 

Only,  dear  soul,  abide  in  Jesus.  Let  the  Holy 
Ghost  in  you  keep  you  abiding  in  Jesus,  so  that 
when  Satan  comes  to  knock  at  your  door,  Jesus  will 
go  and  open  it,  and  as  soon  as  the  devil  sees  the  face 
of  Christ  looking  through  the  door,  he  will  turn  tail 
like  a  whipped  cur.  Let  Jesus  live  in  your  heart. 
Do  you  live  in  Jesus?  When  the  devil  comes,  do 
not  meet  him  yourself,  but  let  Jesus  meet  him,  and 
you  stand  behind  Him.  The  negro  said:  "When 
the  devil  comes  to  me,  I  always  introduce  him  to  his 
betters."  Put  Jesus  between  you  and  the  devil. 
Live  in  Christ.  God  will  work  in  you.  He  will 
make  you  hate  sin.  He  will  make  you  loathe  what 
you  loved.  He  will  deliver  you  deeper,  ever  deeper 
in  your  life,  from  the  power  and  the  love  of  sin.  It 
may  be  a  long  process  before  the  work  is  done,  but 
He  will  keep  you  from  known  sin,  and  save  you  ever 
deeper  down  in  your  heart. 

Oh,  Thou  who  art  able  to  keep  us  from  stumbling 
and  to  present  us  faultless  before  Thy  glory  with  ex- 
ceeding joy,  to  Thee,  Emmanuel,  Christ,  Son  of  God, 
lover  of  my  soul,  I  yield  my  life,  my  soul,  my  alll 


SEVENTH   ADDRESS 
GOD'S  TWO  MEN 

In  the  sight  of  God  there  are  two  men.  "The  first 
man  Adam  was  made  a  living  soul;  the  last  Adam 
was  made  a  life-giving  Spirit.  The  first  man  is  of  the 
earth,  earthy;  the  second  man  is  the  Lord  from  heav- 
en." 1  Cor.  15:45,  47. 

I  want  to  speak  now  about  these  two  men. 

The  first  man.  God  took  the  red  clay  and  molded 
a  man  in  His  own  image'.  See!  that  man  is  taking 
his  nature  out  of  the  hand  of  God,  so  that  instead  of 
God  being  its  center,  he  becomes  his  own  center  as 
he  takes  the  forbidden  fruit.  Next,  he  is  expelled, 
and  in  his  expulsion  from  Paradise  the  whole  race 
passes  out.  A  legend  states  that  as  he  and  Eve 
passed  out.  Eve  plucked  a  flower  to  take  with  her, 
but  it  withered  as  she  passed  the  gate.  At  that  mo- 
ment you  and  I  and  all  our  race  passed  out  of  Para- 
dise. Three  things  followed:  the  bead=drop  of  sweat 
upon  the  brow;  the  pang  of  travail  for  the  woman; 
and  death.  The  sweat  of  toil  for  man,  pain  through 
which  all  the  children  of  life  are  born,  and  the  earth 
seamed  with  graves.  Finally  Adam  begets  a  son  in 
his  own  image;  that  is,  every  child  born  outside  the 
gate  of  Paradise  has  a  bias  to  keep  outside,  no  bias 
to  go  back.  And  just  as  in  England,  when  a  man 
plays  bowls  upon  the  sward,  each  bowl  leaving  the 
hand  has  a  bias  to  turn  off  the  straight,  so  every  one 

73 


74  GOD'S  TWO  MEN 


of  US  is  born  with  a  bias  off  the  right.  By  our  first 
birth  we  all  inherit  a  lost  Paradise,  sweat,  travail, 
death,  and  bias  to  evil. 

Now  the  second  man.  I  see  Him  first  driven  by 
the  gust  of  temptation  as  He  too  stands  before  the 
element  of  life.  The  first  Adam  was  tempted  by  a 
tree,  the  second  Adam  was  tempted  by  bread.  Just 
as  the  first  Adam  made  self  and  passion  his  rule,  the 
second  Adam  made  the  will  of  God  His  rule  and  said : 
"  If  God  says  I'm  not  to  eat,  I'll  not  eat.  Man  shall 
not  live  by  bread  only,  but  by  the  Word  of  God."  So 
Milton  was  perfectly  right  when  he  made  "Paradise 
Eegained"  turn  upon  Christ's  victory  over  tempta- 
tion. 

See  that  second  man.  The  bead^drop  stands  upon 
His  brow  also,  for  He  sits  by  the  well  at  Sychar, 
tired.  The  pang  of  travail  is  in  His  heart,  too,  for 
He  bears  the  infirmity  of  man,  and  by  His  travail  a 
new  earth  and  a  new  heaven  are  born.  He  also  tastes 
death.  He  dies.  So  that  there  is  nothing  in  our  lot 
as  man,  except  the  bias  to  sin,  that  He  does  not  know. 

Look  on  yonder  cross!  The  second  man  is  dying. 
In  yonder  grave  He  lies,  but  from  that  grave  He 
breaks  and  is  the  first  man  to  rise.  You  remind  me 
of  Lazarus.  But  he  did  not  enter  into  resurrection; 
he  v/as  simjjly  a  prisoner  on  parole,  who  went  back 
to  death  again.  But  this  Man  in  death  and  through 
death  passed  into  resurrection;  and  if  you  want  to 
know  what  you  and  your  dear  ones  will  some  day  be, 
study  the  risen  Christ.  He  spoke,  and  Mary  recog- 
nized His  voice;  and  our  dear  ones  will  speak  to  us 
one  day,  and  we  shall  recognize  their  voices.  He 
spoke  about  the  things  which  had  happened  on  the 


GOD'S  TWO  MEN  75 


other  side  of  His  death;  and  our  dear  ones  will  talk 
with  us  some  day  about  the  scenes  of  Bethany  and 
Nazareth  and  Galilee  where  they  and  we  walked  oft 
together. 

But  mark  the  risen  Man.  He  passes  to  the  ascen- 
tion  mountain.  I  never  can  understand  why  the 
Church  has  made  so  little  of  the  resurrection  and  as- 
cension, the  ascension  pre  eminently.  On  the  ascen- 
sion mountain  He  says  farewell.  In  the  early  morning 
He  had  left  the  city.  I  suppose  the  disciples  fol- 
lowed Him;  they  saw  Him,  but  nobody  else.  The 
people  who  met  them  going  through  the  street  saw 
disciples,  but  they  did  not  see  the  risen  Savior  who 
preceded  them.  Tliey  came  together  to  the  ascen- 
sion mountain,  and  He  blessed  them,  and  began  to 
ascend,  and  a  cloud,  like  a  chariot  sent  from  His 
Father's  home  to  fetch  Him  back,  received  Him. 

Ephesians  1 :  21  tells  us  what  hax)pened  on  the  oth- 
er side  of  the  cloud.  We  are  told  that  "  principali- 
ties, and  powers,  and  might,  and  dominion,  and  every 
name  that  is  named,  not  only  in  this  world,  but  also 
in  that  which  is  to  come  " — all  waited  there  to  contest 
our  Savior's  path.  Ephesians  6:  12  shows  that  these 
principalities  and  powers  were  not  bright  angels,  but 
devils  from  hell:  "  We  wrestle  not  against  flesh  and 
blood,  but  against  principalities,  against  powers, 
against  the  rulers  of  the  darkness  of  this  world, 
against  spiritual  wickedness  in  high  places."  All 
hell  was  there  that  morning,  sworn  to  stop  Christ 
from  going  back.  Why?  If  Christ  had  been  con- 
tent to  go  back  as  God,  the  devil  would  have  been  too 
sensible  to  stop  Him,  for  God  must  go  back  to  God. 
But  Christ  took  man  in  Him.     He  was  man,  the  glo- 


76  GOD'S  TWO  MEN 


rifled,  risen,  ascending  man,  the  second  Adam;  and 
all  hell  tried  to  stop  Christ  taking  the  man  to  the 
throne  of  God.  He  may  go  as  God,  but  He  must  not 
go  as  the  representative  man;  or  else,  just  as  in  the 
first  man  the  race  came  out  of  Paradise,  so,  in  the 
second  man,  all  who  believe  in  Him  will  reenter  Par- 
adise. Therefore  the  devil  must  stojp  it  if  he  can. 
But  you  might  as  well  try  to  stop  a  cork  rising  by 
piling  sea=water  on  it,  as  try  to  stop  Christ's  rising 
by  piling  devils  on  Him.  He  went  through  them, 
and  j)assed  into  the  heavens;  and  for  the  first  time 
— and  it  is  so  wonderful! — for  the  first  time  in  the 
history  of  the  universe  the  creature  was  taken  into 
union  with  the  eternal  God  at  the  very  throne  of 
God  Himself. 

Now,  friends,  understand  that  your  nature  as  a 
man  is  the  regnant  nature,  the  ruling  nature  in  the 
universe.  In  the  world  I  suppose  the  Anglo-Saxon 
race  is  the  supreme  race,  and  in  the  universe  our  hu- 
man nature  is 

THE   SUPREME   CREATED  POWER. 

O  wonderful  nature  which  I  possess,  and  which  is 
worn  by  the  Son  of  Man,  so  that  dying  Stephen 
said: 

"  I  see  the  heavens  opened,  and  the  Son  of  Man 
standing  at  the  right  hand  of  God.'' 

I  stop  for  a  moment,  and  I  call  upon  every  one  to 
raise  his  heart  and  say:  "Worthy  art  Thou,  O  Son 
of  Man,  who  art  also  Son  of  God! "  Crowns,  crowns, 
crowns  for  the  exalted  second  man! 

Now  remember,  by  the  first  birth  we  are  all  in  the 
first  man,  and  by  the  second  birth  we  may  all  be  in 


GOD'S  TWO  MEN  77 


the  second  man.  You  are  born  by  nature  into  Adam 
the  first,  you  are  born  by  grace  into  Adam  the  sec- 
ond. "As  many  as  received  Him,  to  them  gave  He 
the  right  to  become  the  sons  of  God,  even  to  them 
that  believe  on  His  name." 

Thank  God,  you  may  be  born  again  as  you  sit  lis- 
tening to  my  voice!  Look  at  my  hand.  That  hand 
has  two  sides,  the  one  toward  the  ceiling,  the  other 
toward  this  floor;  two  sides  of  the  same  hand.  That 
hand  shall  stand  for  the  act  by  which  we  become 
united  with  Christ.  That  act  has  two  sides.  Angels 
in  heaven  call  it  "being  born  again";  men  on  earth 
call  it  "  trust  in  Jesus."  If  you  trust  Jesus  you  are 
born  again,  and  if  you  are  born  again  you  will  trust 
Jesus,  and  you  cannot  tell  which  comes  first,  any 
more  than  you  can  tell  which  spoke  of  the  wheel  be- 
gins to  move  first.     They  all  move  together. 

Now,  soul,  listen.  In  the  past  you  have  been  a 
gay  and  frivolous  woman,  or  you  have  been  a  money- 
loving  man.  You  have  lived  a  butterfly  life,  and  you 
have  come  to  hear  me,  you  hardly  know  why.  Some 
one  asked  you,  and  you  thought  you  might  pass  an 
hour  or  two.  I  tell  you  that  if  you  will  unite  your- 
self with  Jesus  Christ  who  died  for  us,  if  you  will  lift 
your  heart  to  Him  now  and  say:  "Jesus  I  come  to 
Thee,  and  trust  Thee  as  my  Savior,"  you  may  not 
have  tears  or  emotion  or  a  paroxysm,  or  feel  at  all, 
but  you  do  it  in  cold  blood,  you  do  it  by  an  act  of 
your  will,  you  choose  Christ.  The  moment  you  do 
that,  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God  binds  you  in  a  living 
union  with  Christ,  and  the  germ  of  a  new  life  is  put 
into  your  soul.  You  are  born  again!  It  will  begin 
to  work.     It  may  take  years  before  it  works  out;  but 


18  GOD'S  TWO  MEN 


it  will  begin  to  work  instantaneously,  and  you  will 
belong  to  the  aristocracy  of  the  universe,  Jesus  Christ 
and  the  new  humanity. 

Now  we  must  go  a  step  further.  It  is  one  of  the 
most  wonderful  things  in  the  Bible  to  discover  what 
is  knov/n  as  the  aorist  tense,  the  Greek  aorist,  the 
definite  past  act.  Now  that  aorist  is  used  in  Eph.  2: 
5,  6,  where  the  Apostle  says,  as  in  Colossians,  that  we 
were  quickened  with  Christ,  were  raised  with  Christ, 
ascended  with  Christ,  and  are  seated  at  the  right 
hand  of  God. 

Now  follow  me.  God  knew  all  those  who  would 
believe  in  Jesus  and  become  united  with  Him,  and 
Jesus  stood  for  all  of  them.  When  He  was  on  the 
cross,  all  who  were  to  believe,  who  shall  believe,  His 
one  true  church—  all  were  on  the  cross  in  Him,  and 
in  Christ  we  paid  the  penalty  of  our  sins.  It  is  im- 
possible for  me  to  go  to  hell,  because  God  saw  to  it 
that  my  sin  v/as  punished  when  I  died  in  Christ.  I 
paid  my  debt  when  I  died  nearly  nineteen  hundred 
years  ago  in  God's  purpose  in  Christ.  Then  when 
He  lay  in  the  grave,  and  women  and  men  bore  Him 
there  and  put  Him  to  what  appeared  to  be  His  last 
sleep,  you  and  I  and  all  the  church  lay  in  the  grave 
too. 

My  brother,  if  you  go  back  and  live  a  worldly  life, 
you  have  to  go  back  through  the  grave  to  it,  because 
the  grave  lies  between  the  body  of  Christ,  of  which 
you  are  a  part,  and  the  world  that  cast  Him  out. 
The  world  cast  Him  out,  and  when  they  cast  Him  out 
they  cast  us  out  also,  and  we  were  buried  in  Christ 
by  the  world  that  hates  the  church. 

But  just  as  Eve  was  taken  out  of  Adam  as  he  slept, 


GOD'S  TWO  MEN 


the  Cimrcli  was  taken  out  of  Christ  in  His  sleep,  and 
when  He  rose  we  streamed  out  a  great  procession 
from  the  grave.  And  on  Easter  morning  I  celebrate 
not  only  the  resurrection  of  Christ  but  my  own,  for  I 
too  was  raised  in  Him. 

O!  it  was  a  good  thing  when,  as  I  crossed  the  Atlan- 
tic, we  got  through  that  storm.  It  was  such  a  storiii 
that  I  could  hardly  preach  to  the  people  in  the  sa- 
loon, the  ship  was  rocking  so;  but  after  a  while  we 
got  through  the  disturbance,  and  left  the  storm  be- 
hind us.  And  in  Christ,  when  He  died,  the  ark  of 
God  carried  you  and  me  through  the  storm  of  death 
into  clear  water,  and  above  us  is  the  blue  sky  of 
God's  love. 

On  ascension  day  I  celebrate  my  ascension  also,  and 
in  God's  purpose  all  of  us  who  believe  are  seated  in 
Christ,  and  we  must  live  day  by  day  as  those  who  in 
God's  purpose  have  passed  into  the  heavenly  life. 

You  tell  me  that  when  I  die  my  eternity  will  begin. 
No  such  thing.  My  eternity  began  when  I  was  born 
in  Christ.  Eternal  life  is  in  my  heart  to-day,  and 
the  only  difference  that  will  com^e  to  me  when  I  pass 
through  what  men  call  death,  but  which  to  me  is  not 
death— it  is  only  the  shadow  of  death,  for  I  died  in 
Christ,  and  I  can  never  pass  again  through  the  agony 
of  death,  but  I  will  pass  through  the  shadow  of  death, 
and  no  one  was  ever  hurt  by  a  shadow  yet,  although 
they  may  have  been  a  little  fearful— the  only  difference 
that  will  come  to  me  is  that  I  shall  get  rid,  for  a  time 
at  least,  of  a  rather  crazy  body,  which  will  lie  to  wait 
until  my  spirit  rejoins  it  in  perfect  beauty.  But 
God  will  never  love  me  more  than  He  does  to-day, 
and  I  shall  never  be   nearer  God   than  I  am   to=dayi 


80  GOD'S  TWO  MEN 


and  already  I  hunger  no  more,  nor  thirst  any  more, 
neither  does  the  sun  smite  me  nor  any  heat,  because 
already  the  Lamb  is  leading  me  day  by  day  to  living 
fountains  of  waters,  and  God  is  wiping  all  tears  from 
my  eyes.  Eternity  is  begun. 
Now  let  us  see  just  how  this  works  out. 

POSITION 

First,  as  to  your  position  before  God.  Your  posi- 
tion is  IN  Christ.  You  are  standing  to-day  in  Christ. 
Never  forget  to  distinguish  between  your  standing 
and  your  experience.  Your  standing  is  in  Christ, 
your  experience  is  in  your  emotion.  John  Bunyan 
says  that  our  emotion  is  like  our  spending  money, 
the  money  we  have  in  our  pocket:  it  is  sometimes 
more,  but  generally  less;  but  our  standing  in  our 
Forerunner  is  like  the  money  we  have  in  the  bank, 
which  is  not  afiPected  by  our  daily  expenses.  I  am 
sometimes  happy,  sometimes  worn,  over-tired,  in- 
clined to  be  nervous;  but  I  never  mind,  because  it 
does  not  matter  to  me  whether  I  pass  through  the 
dark  and  the  valley  of  sorrow  and  all  transient  de- 
pression. My  position  is  unaffected  because  it  is 
settled  in  my  Forerunner,  my  Priest,  my  Savior,  my 
Head,  in  whom  I  stand  before  God.  O,  blessed  be 
God  for  that!  Do  not  look,  therefore,  for  evidence  in 
your  emotions,  but  look  for  your  title  deeds  in  Christ 
the  Forerunner. 

VICTOKY 

Next,  look  at  your  victory.  In  Christ  you  are 
above  the  devil.  Now  mark:  The  devil  was  made  to 
be  God's  vicegerent.  He  fell.  In  his  stead  God 
made  man  to  have  dominion  over  the  earth,  and  the 


GOD'S  TWO  MEN  81 


devil  swore   that  man  should  never  be  superior  to 
him.     He  thought  he  could  get  man  down  under  his 
feet,  so  he  breathed  hell  into  man,  and  man  fell  into 
selfishness,  which  is  hell;  and  the  devil  laughed: 
"Ha,  ha,  I  am  sui^reme  !" 

Moses  went  under.  Job  went  under,  David  went 
under,  all  men  went  under  the  devil.  But  Christ 
came,  a  man,  and  the  devil  fell  beneath  Him  thrice; 
three  galling  throws  in  the  wilderness.  All  through 
Christ's  life  He  cast  the  legions  out.  The  devil  came 
to  Him  on  the  cross,  and  Christ  broke  his  head.  The 
devil  came  to  Him  in  the  ascension,  and  Christ 
trod  upon  him.  And  in  Christ  our  Head,  our  hu- 
manity, our  manhood,  our  new  race  trod  the  devil 
under,  and  in  spite  of  all  that  the  devil  could  do,  the 
second  Man,  the  Lord  from  heaven,  took  the  supe- 
rior position,  and  you  and  I  took  took  it  too  in  Him. 
When,  therefore  the  devil  comes  to  us,  let  us  remind 
him  that  he  is  inferior  to  Christ.  The  devil^nature 
is  inferior  to  the  Christ-nature,  and  if  you  have  got 
the  Christ=nature  in  you,  the  devil  is  inferior  to  you. 

I  was  once  trying  to  explain  this  to  a  man.     Said  I 
to  him : 

''  To  what  part  of  the  body  of  Christ  do  you  be- 
long?" 

He  said:  "  I  don't  know." 

"Well,"  said  I,  "do  you  belong  to  the  eye  in  His 
mystical  body?" 

"No,"  said  he,  " I  don't  weep  enough." 

"Do  you  belong  to  His  mouth?" 

"  No,  I  don't  speak  enough." 

"Do  you  belong  to  His  heart?" 

"  No,"  said  he,  "  I  don't  love  enough." 


82  GOD'S  TWO  MEN 


"Do  you  belong  to  His  hand?" 

"  No,  sir,  I  don't  do  enough." 

I  said:  "  Man  alive,  if  you  are  a  Christian,  you  are 
in  some  part  of  the  body  of  Christ.  Where  are 
you?" 

''Well,"  he  said,  "I  may  be  in  His  feet." 

"  Well,  if  you  are  in  His  feet,  that  will  serve  my 
purpose,  for  it  is  written.  He  will  put  all  enemies 
under  His  feet." 

And  so  it  is  proved  beyond  doubt  and  forever  more 
that  the  man  who  has  got  Christ  in  him  is  devil= 
proof.  The  devil  cannot  touch  him  if  he  abides  in 
Christ. 

Now,  the  only  way  in  which  the  devil  can  get  the 
better  of  you  is  to  strew  some  crumbs  to  get  you 
from  under  the  wing  of  Christ.  As  long  as  you  stay 
there,  the  devil  cannot  touch  you.  So  he  puts  some 
little  morsels  of  worldly  pleasure,  and  evil  imagina- 
tion, and  lust,  and  passion,  and  he  says:  "Come 
along,  come  along,  come  along!"  and  when  you  come 
out,  he  has  you.  But  if  you  keep  in  Christ  he  can- 
not touch  you.  Abide  in  Christ  and  let  Christ  abide 
in  you,  and  the  devil  has  no  power. 

POSSESSION 

One  thing  more.  Eph.  4:8:  "  Wherefore  he  saith, 
When  He  ascended  up  on  high  He  led  captivity  cap- 
tive, and  gave  gifts  unto  men."  Acts  2:  33:  "  There- 
fore being  by  the  right  hand  of  God  exalted,  and 
having  received  of  the  Father  the  promise  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  He  hath  shed  forth  this  which  ye  now 
see  and  hear." 

When  the  Son  of  Man  entered  the  presence  of  the 


GOD'S  TWO  MEN  83 


Father  as  our  forerunner  and  representative,  Peter 
tells  us  (the  Greek  word  bears  the  meaning),  that  He 
asked  the  Father  for  the  Holy  Spirit.  As  the 
second  person  in  the  Holy  Trinity,  Jesus  was  one 
with  the  Father  and  the  Holy  Spirit  before  all  time, 
but  when  He  became  man  He  put  out  of  use  the  at- 
tributes of  His  deity  for  the  time  being.  At  any  mo- 
ment He  might  have  used  them,  and  indeed  the  devil 
tried  to  induce  Him  to  do  so,  but  He  refused,  and 
was  content  to  live  the  human  life  in  the  power  of 
God  received  into  His  human  nature.  When  He 
went  up  to  God  it  was  still  as  the  ascended,  glorified, 
representative  man;  and  as  such  He  came  to  His  Fa- 
ther and  said,  so  to  speak: 

"  Father,  I  have  glorified  Thee  on  the  earth,  I  have 
finished  the  work  which  Thou  gavest  Me  to  do.  And 
now  I  come  to  Thee,  and  behind  Me  there  are  mil- 
lions of  spirits  that  are  following  on  the  way  that  I 
have  made  for  them,  millions  who  are  to  believe  in 
Me,  to  become  united  with  Me  by  faith,  and  who 
soon  will  come  to  be  with  Me  where  I  am.  I  ask  noth- 
ing for  Myself,  it  is  enough  for  Me  to  be  with  You 
again;  but  I  ask  for  them  that  Thou  wouldest  give  to 
Me  as  their  representative,  the  fulness  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  that  what  I  have  had  I  may  be  able  to  com- 
municate to  them." 

So  He  received  of  the  Father  the  promise  of  the 
Holy  Ghost;  not  as  God,  because  as  such  He  was  one 
with  the  Holy  Ghost,  but  as  man,  as  the  representa- 
tive  man,  that  He  might  be  able  to  communicate 
Him  to  men. 

A  friend  of  mine  was  in  Switzerland,  and  two 
Englishmen  came  into  the  hotel  where  he  was  stay- 


84  GOD'S  TWO  MEN 


ing,  and  engaged  three  guides.  They  were  going  to 
take  a  very  precipitous  ascent  up  the  side  of  a  moun- 
tain, a  piece  of  ice  which  was  ahnost  as  steep  as  the 
side  of  a  house.  When  they  reached  the  spot  they 
roped  themselves  together:  a  guide,  a  traveler,  a 
guide,  a  traveler,  a  guide.  They  commenced  to  climb, 
and  by  cutting  notches  in  the  ice  wall  they  were  able 
to  place  the  toes  of  their  feet.  So  they  crept  up, 
and  they  had  nearly  reached  the  top,  when  in  some 
way  the  last  man  lost  his  footing  and  began  to  sway. 
He  pulled  down  the  man  above  him,  and  he  too  be- 
gan to  swing  slowly  to  and  fro.  The  two  pulled 
down  the  third,  and  the  third,  the  fourth,  and  all 
four  were  swinging  over  the  precipice  in  imminent 
danger  of  being  dashed  to  pieces.  The  only  thing 
that  kept  them  was  the  rope  around  the  waist  of  the 
first  man.  As  soon  as  he  felt  the  strain,  he  took  his 
ice  axe  and  drove  it  hard  into  the  ice  just  above  him, 
and  held  to  it  for  life;  and  as  he  stood  for  an  instant 
or  two,  the  man  next  him  regained  his  footing,  the 
man  beneath,  his,  and  so  on  to  the  end  of  the  line, 
and  the  whole  five  stood  because  the  first  man 
stood. 

You  understand  the  application.  You  and  I  have 
no  power;  we  swing  to  and  fro;  but  by  faith  we  are 
bound  to  Christ,  and  because  He  is  in  the  glory  and 
stands  up  there,  we  shall  be  pulled  up  at  last  from 
the  difficulties  of  this  present  life,  to  stand  with  Him 
forever  in  His  Father's  presence. 


EIGHTH  ADDRESS 
THE  ANOINTING  WITH  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT. 
There  is  no  need  for  me  to  prove  or  attempt  to 
prove  that  the  Holy  Ghost  is  a  person.  In  the  Greek, 
though  the  name  for  the  Holy  Ghost  is  neuter,  it  is 
followed  by  a  personal  pronoun  aidos,  which  could 
not  be  used  unless  the  Holy  Spirit  was  a  person. 
Readers  of  the  English  Bible  will  remember  that  the 
Holy  Spirit  said:  "  Separate  me  Barnabas  and  Saul," 
and  the  Apostle  says:  "  Grieve  not  the  Holy  Spirit." 
Only  a  person  can  designate  workmen,  and  only  a 
person  with  a  tender  nature  could  be  grieved.  As 
you  worship  the  Father  and  the  Son,  worship  the 
Holy  Spirit;  three  persons,  but  one  God. 

Before  Pentecost  the  Holy  Spirit  brooded  over  our 
world.  In  chaos  He  moved  to  educe  cosmos.  He 
wrought  in  holy  men  to  inspire  the  Word  of  God. 
He  prepared  the  way  for  Christ.  But  Pentecost  was 
His  birthday.  Just  as  Jesus  Christ  was  in  the  world 
before  His  incarnation,  but  His  incarnation  was  His 
birthday  into  the  body,  so  the  Holy  Ghost  was  in  the 
world  before  Pentecost,  but  on  the  day  of  Pentecost 
He  was  born  into  the  body  of  Christ.  And  as  the 
body  born  of  the  virgin  was  the  home  of  Christ,  and 
through  it  He  wrought,  so  the  Church  is  the  body  of 
the  Holy  Spirit,  through  which  He  is  working  during 
this  era,  until  the  body  shall  rejoin  the  Head,  and 


85 


86  THE  ANOINTING  WITH  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT 

Head  and  body  make  one  entity,  a  new  man  for  ever 
more.  As  the  manger  was  the  cradle  of  Christ,  so  the 
upper  chamber  in  Jerusalem  was  the  cradle  of  the 
Holy  Spirit's  incarnation.  Hence  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church,  claiming  that  she  is  the  only  true  church,  calls 
herself  the  see  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  The  word  "  see  " 
is  the  Latin  sedcs,  a  seat.  The  Church  of  Rome 
says  she  is  the  seat  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  thus 
takes  to  herself  that  which  is  the  province  of  the 
Holy  Catholic  Church;  the  body  of  Christ,  which  is 
not  visible,  but  which  consists  of  all  who  believe,  is 
the  seat,  the  see,  the  throne,  of  the  most  Holy  Spirit. 

Men  talk  as  though  God  were  an  absentee.  But 
every  true  believer,  every  audience  gathered  in  the 
name  of  Christ,  is  the  home,  the  see,  the  body  of  God 
the  Holy  Spirit. 

Now  on  the  day  of  Pentecost  the  Holy  Spirit  came 
to  give  power  to  the  preaching  of  the  gospel.  Jesus 
Christ  was  conceived  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  The  Holy 
Thing  born  of  the  pure  virgin  was  wrought  by  the 
Holy  Sj)irit,  and  through  thirty  years  Jesus  was  led 
and  taught  amid  His  native  hills  by  the  divine  Spir- 
it. Beneath  His  impulse  our  Lord  vrent  down  to  the 
Jordan,  and  being  baptized  He  identified  Himself 
with  the  sins  of  men:  for  the  Jordan  was  (so  to  speak) 
saturated  with  the  sin  that  was  confessed  over  it,  and 
when  Jesus  Christ  stepped  into  it  He  became  (as  it 
were)  identified  with  the  sin  of  the  race,  though  He 
Himself  was  sinless.  From  the  Jordan  He  went  forth  to 
His  work,  but  not  before  the  sky  had  been  rift,  and 
the  Holy  Spirit  had  come  upon  Him  with  the  gentle 
movement  of  a  dove. 

What!  had  He  not  been   conceived   by   the   Holy 


THE  ANOINTING  WITH  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT  87 

Spirit?  Yes.  Was  He  not  one  with  the  Holy  Spirti? 
Certainly.  Why  then  should  He  be  again  anointed? 
Because  His  human  nature  needed  to  be  empowered 
by  the  Holy  Spirit  before  even  He  could  do  successful 
service  in  the  world.  Jesus  waited  for  thirty  years 
until  He  was  anointed,  and  only  then  did  He  say: 
"  The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  God  is  uiDon  me,  (Greek, 
ejyi,  UPON  me),  and  He  hath  anointed  me  to  preach." 

How  absurd  it  is  for  us  to  send  young  men  to  col- 
lege to  equip  them  with  intellectual  store  of  classic 
and  philosophic  learning,  and  to  send  them  out  to 
teach,  without  insisting  upon  it  that  if  Christ  waited 
to  be  anointed  before  He  went  to  preach,  no  young 
man  ought  to  preach  until  he,  too,  has  been  anointed 
of  the  Holy  Ghost! 

For  three  years  our  Lord  wrought  in  the 
power  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  Never  forget  that  our 
Lord's  ministry  was  not  in  the  power  of  the  second 
person  of  the  Holy  Trinity,  but  in  the  powder  of  the 
third  person  of  the  Holy  Trinity.  As  Saint  Peter 
said:  "God  anointed  Him  with  the  Holy  Ghost,  and 
He  went  about  doing  good."  On  the  cross  He  offered 
Himself  to  God  in  the  power  of  the  eternal  Spirit. 
He  was  raised  from  the  dead  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  and 
during  the  forty  days  He  gave  command  to  His  apos- 
tles in  and  by  the  Holy  Ghost.  And  before  He  went, . 
He  said  to  His  disciples  that  as  He  received  His: 
Pentecost  at  the  Jordan,  He  would  see  that  the 
church  had  her  Pentecost  too.  He  was  conceived  of 
the  Holy  Ghost,  but  He  was  anointed  by  the  Holy 
Ghost.  The  church  was  conceived  by  the  Holy 
Ghost,  but  the  church,  before  attempting  her  minis- 
try,  must  also  be  anointed  by  the  Holy  Ghost;  and 


88  THE  ANOINTING  WITH  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT 

what  the  baptism  in  Jordan  was  to  the  Head,  the  day 
of  Pentecost  was  to  the  body. 

The  Head  communicated  the  Holy  Ghost  to  the 
body,  as  I  explained  in  the  preceding  address. 

I  ask  every  Bible  student  to  note  that  wonderful 
w^ord:  "He  received  of  the  Father  the  promise  of  the 
Holy  Ghost."  No  sooner  had  He  received  it  than 
He  turned  to  see  if  His  people  were  prepared  to  re- 
ceive it,  and  then  He  opened  the  window  of  heaven 
and  poured  down  a  Niagara  upon  His  church;  and 
ever  since  He  has  been  there  in  the  glory,  charged, 
yes,  charged  with  the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  And 
just  as  a  man  may  touch  a  man  charged  with  electric- 
ity, and  a  spark  will  answer,  so  you  cannot  touch  the 
living  Christ  by  faith  without  the  spark  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  flashing  into  your  soul. 

Brethren,  the  Greek  preposition  epi  is  significant 
of  Pentecost.  Pentecost  differs  from  regeneration. 
In  regeneration  the  Holy  Spirit  is  described  as  being 
within,  but  in  Pentecost  and  ever  after  the  Holy 
Ghost  is  described  as  being  iij)on.  He  anoints.  He 
falls  upon,  He  equips;  and  I  ask  that  before  this 
meeting  shall  close,  every  one  in  this  audience  who 
has  been  regenerated  by  the  Holy  Ghost  shall  be- 
come anointed,  filled,  empowered  with  the  Holy 
Ghost.     It  would  make 

THE  GREATEST    DIFFERENCE    POSSIBLE    IN   YOUR   LIFE. 

There  is  where  you  have  failed,  my  brother.  You 
have  been  preaching  the  cross,  but  you  have  not 
been  preaching  the  cross  in  the  demonstration  and 
power  of  the  blessed  Spirit. 

When  I  was  at  Leicester,  there  were  many  dis- 


THE  ANOINTING  WITH  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT  89 

charged  prisoners  whom  I  took  from  the  prison  gate 
to  my  house,  where  they  lived  with  me,  under  my 
care.  I  had  a  firewood  factory.  The  great  beams 
came  from  Norway,  and  they  were  sawn  up  by  a  cir- 
cular saw  wrought  by  a  crank,  and  on  that  crank  fif- 
teen men  were  kept  at  work  to  give  them  an  oppor- 
tunity of  regaining  their  character.  But  these  men 
served  me  ill.  I  lost  much  money.  I  presently 
swept  them  away,  and  instead  purchased  a  gas-en- 
gine, and  the  gas-engine  did  in  an  hour  as  much 
work  as  the  fifteen  discharged  prisoners  did  in  eight 
hours. 

One  day  I  asked  my  circular  saw  how  it  was  that 
it  turned  out  so  much  work,  and  the  saw  at  first  said 
it  could  not  tell.  I  asked  if  it  had  been  sharpened. 
It  said  no.  I  asked  if  it  had  been  polished.  It  said 
no.  I  asked  if  it  had  been  oiled.  It  said  no.  Then 
I  said: 

"How  is  it?" 

"  Why,"  it  replied,  "I  think  there  is  a  stronger 
driving  power  behind  me.  Something  is  working 
through  me  with  a  new  force.  It  is  not  I,  it  is  the 
power  behind." 

Would  God  that  you,  my  brother  ministers,  who 
have  been  working  with  the  power  of  intellect,  of  en- 
ergy, of  enthusiastic  zeal,  with  but  poor  effect,  may 
become  linked  to  the  power  of  God  the  Holy  Ghost 
stored  in  Christ;  for  as  soon  as  you  shall  link  to  it, 
not  you,  but  the  power  of  God  through  you,  will  re- 
peat the  marvels  of  Pentecost. 

One  word  more  here.  You  ask  me  if  the  day  of 
Pentecost  was  a  specimen  day.  I  answer:  yes,  and 
for  two  reasons.     First,  on  the  day  of  Pentecost  the 


90  THE  ANOINTING  WITH  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT 

priest  in  the  Temple  presented  twelve  loaves,  the 
specimen  and  the  result  of  the  harvest;  and  inasmuch 
as  God  chose  the  day  of  Pentecost  for  the  outpouring 
of  the  Holy  Spirit,  He  surely  meant  us  to  understand 
that  the  day  of  Pentecost  was  a  specimen  day,  and 
that  what  He  did  that  day  He  was  prepared  to  do 
every  day;  and  He  would  have  done  it  if  the  church 
had  not  choked  and  frustrated  His  plans.  Secondly, 
in  Acts  2:  39  you  have  these  words  of  Peter:  ''This 
promise  is  unto  you,  and  to  your  children,  and  to  all 
that  are  afar  off,  even  as  many  as  the  Lord  our  God 
shall  call."  Understand  therefore  that  the  promise 
of  Pentecost  is  for  you  also,  because  God  has  called 
you,  and  from  to-day  you  may  go  forth  charged  with 
power  from  on  high. 

HOW   MAY   WE    GET   THIS   ANOINTING? 

Now  a  step  further.  You  say  to  me:  "  Sir,  tell  me 
how  I  may  get  this  power  myself." 

I  will.  I  know  a  little  of  it,  thank  God,  and  I 
hope  as  the  years  pass  that  I  m.ay  know  more  and 
more.     This  truth  has  revolutionized  my  life. 

Any  mechanic  knows  this  law  to  be  true:  obey  the 
law  of  a  force,  and  the  force  v/ill  obey  you.  I  repeat 
it:  obey  the  lav/  of  a  force,  and  that  force  will  obey 
you.  Take  v/ater- force.  I  cannot  make  water  do 
my  will  until  I  understand  the  law  upon  which  it 
works.  If  I  want  v;ater  to  go  up  hill,  I  must  study 
the  law  by  which  water  seeks  its  own  level;  and  if  I 
construct  my  machinery  to  obey  the  law  of  falling 
water,  then  having  obeyed  the  law  of  water,  water 
will  obey  me.  What  has  Edison  been  doing  for  the 
last  twenty  years  in  his  laboratory?     He  has  been 


THE  ANOINTING  WITH  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT  91 


studying  the  law  of  electricity,  and  having  studied 
the  law  upon  which  electricity  works,  he  has  con- 
structed  his  machinery  to  obey  that  law;  and  ever 
since  he  perfected  his  obedience,  electricity  has  been 
his  slave,  and  there  is  nothing  he  cannot  make  elec- 
tricity perform  if  only  he  is  patient  and  wise  enough 
to  understand  the  method  on  which  electricity  will 
work. 

I  once  asked  some  men  this  very  profound  ques- 
tion: "  When  was  there  more  electricity  in  the  world 
—now,  or  away  back  a  hundred  years?" 

They  all  said  there  was  more  electricity  in  the  world 
to^^day  than  there  had  ever  been  before.  Poor  fools 
they  must  have  been  to  come  to  such  a  conclusion. 
Why,  before  Adam  stepped  the  sward  of  Paradise 
there  was  as  much  electricity  in  the  cloud,  in  the  air, 
and  in  nature  as  there  is  to-day,  only  man  did  not 
understand  the  law  of  electricity,  and  therefore  elec- 
tricity would  not  obey  his  summons.  There  was 
plenty  of  electricity,  but  men  never  used  it. 

So  is  it  with  the  Holy  Spirit.  There  is  as  much 
Holy  Spirit  power  in  your  little  village  church,  my 
brother,  as  there  is  in  the  largest  tabernacle  in  the 
country,  and  the  mistake  of  your  life  has  been  that 
you  have  never  yet  learned  the  law  of  the  Holy 
Ghost;  for  if  you  had,  the  Holy  G  host  would  have  come 
flowing  through  your  life  as  much  as  through  the  life 
of  a  Peter  or  a  John.  You  seem  to  think  that  God  is  a 
God  of  favoritism.  You  seem  to  think  that  God  has 
His  chosen  favorites  whom  He  endues  with  the  Ho- 
ly Ghost  here  and  there,  whilst  ail  the  rest  are  left  to 
take  their  chance.  I  admit  that  the  gifts  of  the  liv- 
ing Christ  are  given  on  His  sovereign  decision,  but 


92  THE  ANOINTING  WITH  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT 

the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost  is  for  everyone,  for 
you. 

Now  let  me  tell  you  briefly  the  conditions  on  which, 
if  you  obey  them,  you  may  at  this  minute  and  from 
now  be  able  to — I  was  going  to  say,  but  perhaps  it 
is  too  startling, — to  command  the  Holy  Ghost.  I 
think  I  will  say  that,  however,  because  God  says: 
"Of  the  work  of  My  hand  command  ye  Me."  And  if 
a  man  will  obey  God  to  the  uttermost,  he  may  com- 
mand the  power  of  God  at  any  moment. 

Now  what  are  these  conditions?  They  are  as  far 
as  I  know  five.  If  you  discover  another,  let  me 
know. 

FIVE  CONDITIONS 

First.  You  cannot  have  the  'power  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  without  having  the  Holy  Ghost  Himself . 

That  is,  the  Holy  Ghost  must  come  to  you  as  a  per- 
son before  you  can  enjoy  His  attribute.  In  other 
words,  you  must  be  a  holy  man  before  you  can  wield 
the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  There  are  plenty  of 
men  who  think  that  if  they  could  only  get  the  power 
of  the  Holy  Ghost  they  would  be  able  to  fill  their 
churches  and  sell  their  books  and  get  themselves 
name  and  fame.  They  want  it,  but  not  Him.  You 
cannot  have  it  without  having  Him.  If  you  want  the 
power  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  open  your  heart  to^^day 
and  be  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  then  you  will 
have  His  power. 

Second.     You  must  be  cleansed. 

Oh,  I  do  want  to  speak  wisely !  I  do  not  want 
needlessly  to  offend  you,  or  denounce  you.  But  I 
do  feel  in  my  heart  that  if  the  Holy  Spirit  is  going  to 
work  through    you  or  any   body  He  must  have  a 


THE  ANOINTING  WITH  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT         93 

cleansed  vessel.     The  body  must  be  clean. 

Now  I  know  that  I  might  here  dilate  on  many  of 
those  indulgences  that  men  and  women  permit.  I 
would  much  prefer  not  to  characterize  them,  because 
you  yourselves  know  anything  in  your  life  which  is 
inconsistent  with  the  perfect  majesty  and  purity  of 
that  Spirit  who  has  made  your  body  His  temple. 
But  if  my  body  is  really  the  temple,  the  residence  and 
the  throne  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  I  must  be  as  careful  of 
it  as  I  would  be  if  I  were  the  custodian  of  a  temple 
in  the  inner  part  of  which  the  light  of  God  shone. 
I  need  not  say  more  than  that. 

Third.  You  must  live  for  the  glory  of  Christ  as 
your  sui:>reme  end. 

Jesus  Christ,  came  into  the  world  to  glorify  the 
Father,  and  the  Holy  Ghost  came  into  the  world  to 
glorify  the  Son.  If  therefore  you  want  the  Holy 
Ghost  to  work  with  you  you  must  agree  with  the 
Holy  Ghost  to  glorify  Jesus,  for  the  Spirit  was  not 
given  till  Jesus  was  glorified. 

Fourth.  Your  preaching  and  teaching  must  he  in 
harmony  ivith  the  Word  of  God. 

I  am  a  Quaker  by  extraction,  and  I  glory  in  it, 
especially  w^hen  T  know  what  they  have  been  in  this 
country.  I  dissent  from  them  because  I  believe  they 
went  wrong  when  they  magnified  the  Holy  Spirit  to 
the  exclusion,  in  many  cases,  of  the  Word  of  God. 
And  with  all  love  I  would  say  that  if  there  is  one 
danger  ahead  for  the  Salvation  Army  of  the  present 
day,  it  is  lest  they  should  magnify  the  work  of  the 
Spirit  of  God  in  experience,  apart  from  the  Word  of 
God  taught  to  their  converts.  Remember  that  the 
Holy  Spirit  is  like  a  locomotive,  the  Word  of  God 


94  THE  ANOINTING  WITH  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT 

like  the  steel  rails;  and  you  must  have  the  steel  rails 
of  the  Bible  as  well  as  the  steam-power  of  the  Holy 
Ghost.  Let  the  Holy  Ghost  fill  you,  but  He  will 
work  along  that  Book.  And  I  hold  that  the  fact  that 
the  Holy  Spirit  elects  to  work  through  that  Book  is  its 
most  complete  vindication  against  all  that  modern 
critics  have  to  say.  As  long  as  the  Holy  Ghost  is 
prepared  to  stand  by  it  and  to  work  by  it,  I  hold  it 
to  be  in  an  incomparable  sense  the  Word  of  the  liv- 
ing God  to  man.  I  am  well  satisfied  to  accept  it  all, 
Jonah  and  the  fish  included. 

Fifth,  and  last.  TJie  Holy  SphHt  must  he  received 
by  faith.  Gal.  3:14  is  the  battle-axe.  I  would  not 
be  without  that  text  for  anything:  "  That  we  might 
receive  the  promise  of  the  Spirit  though  faith." 

All  God's  dealings  with  men  are  on  the  same  prin- 
ciple, by  faith.  By  faith  you  are  regenerate,  by  faith 
you  are  justified,  by  faith  you  are  santified,  by  faith 
you  receive  the  Holy  Ghost,  by  faith  you  receive 
Christ  as  the  power  of  God  into  your  life.  It  is  all 
by  faith. 

Let  me  close  with  this  bit  of  personal  experience. 
I  have  always  gone  on  the  principle  that  our  moral 
constitution  is  on  the  same  plan;  that  just  as  our 
faces  are  made  on  the  same  plan,  so  our  moral  nature 
is  made  on  the  same  plan;  and  one  of  the  key-notes 
of  my  life  has  been:  Understand  yourself,  and  you 
will  understand  something  of  everybody  else. 

I  had  been  for  a  long  time  a  minister  in  Leicester, 
with  a  large  church  and  of  considerable  influence  in 
the  city,  but  very  unhappy.  Conscious  that  I  had 
not  received  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  I  went  up 
to  that  little  village,  the  name  of  which  you  hear  so 


THE  ANOINTING  WITH  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT  95 

often,  Keswick.  A  great  number  of  God's  people 
gathered  there  to  seek  and  to  receive  the  power  of 
the  Holy  Spirit,  and  they  elected  to  have  a  prayer= 
meeting  from  nine  o'clock  to  eleven  and  onwards,  to 
pray  for  the  Holy  Ghost.  A  great  many  people  were 
there  agonizing.  I  was  too  tired  to  agonize,  and  I 
somehow  felt  that  God  did  not  want  me  to  agonize 
hour  after  hour,  but  I  had  to  learn  to  talxcj  that  God 
wanted  to  give,  and  I  had  only  to  take. 

To-morrow  your  little  girl  will  come  down  to 
breakfast.  She  is  very  hungry,  and  the  bread  and 
milk  or  the  oatmeal  is  on  the  table.  You  do  not 
say: 

"  Little  girlie,  run  upstairs,  and  agonize,  roll  on  the 
floor  for  an  hour,  and  then  come  down." 

You  say  to  her:  "  Little  one,  I  am  so  glad  you  have 
got  a  good  appetite.  Now  there  is  your  chair,  in  you 
get,  say  your  prayer,  and  start  away." 

That  is  what  God  says  to  the  soul.  Those  all= 
nights  of  prayer  for  the  Holy  Ghost  are  jDrincipally 
necessary  to  get  the  peoi^le  who  pray  into  a  fit  condi- 
tion to  receive  the  Holy  Ghost;  for  when  the  people 
are  ready  the  Holy  Ghost  wdll  come  without  agoniz- 
ing. 

So  I  left  that  prayer-meeting  at  Keswick.  It  was 
eleven  o'clock  or  half  past  eleven,  and  I  crept  out  in- 
to the  lane,  and  away  from  the  little  village.  The 
lights  died  away  in  the  distance,  and  I  stood  on  the 
hill,  or  walked  to  and  fro,  the  stars  shining  upon  me, 
and  now  and  again  a  little  cloud  dropping  a  baptism 
of  rain  upon  my  face,  as  though  symbolic  of  the  re- 
freshing my  soul  was  to  receive.  As  I  walked  I 
said: 


96  THE  ANOINTING  WITH  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT 

"  O,  my  God,  if  there  is  a  man  in  this  village  who 
needs  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost  to  rest  upon  him, 
it  is  I;  but  I  do  not  know  how  to  receive  Him.  I  am 
too  tired,  too  worn,  too  nervously  down  to  agonize." 

A  voice  said  to  me:  "As  you  took  forgiveness 
from  the  hand  of  the  dying  Christ,  take  the  Holy 
Ghost  from  the  hand  of  the  living  Christ." 

I  turned  to  Christ  and  said:  "Lord,  as  I  breathe  in 
this  whiff  of  warm  night  air,  so  I  breathe  into  every 
part  of  me  Thy  blessed  Spirit." 

I  felt  no  hand  laid  upon  my  head,  there  was  no 
lambent  flame,  there  was  no  rushing  sound  from 
heaven;  but  by  faith,  without  emotion,  without  ex- 
citement I  took,  and  took  for  the  first  time,  and  I 
have  kept  on  taking  ever  since. 

I  turned  to  leave  the  mountain  side,  and  as  I  went 
down,  the  tempter  said : 

"You  have  got  nothing.     It  is  moonshine." 

I  said:  "I  have." 

He  said:  "  Do  you  feel  it?" 

"I  do  not." 

"Then  if  you  do  not  feel  it  you  have  not  got  it." 

I  said:  "  I  do  not  feel  it,  but  I  reckon  that  God  is 
faithful,  and  He  could  not  have  brought  a  hungry 
soul  to  claim  by  faith,  and  then  give  a  stone  for 
bread,  and  a  scorpion  for  a  fish.  I  know  I  have  got 
it  because  God  led  me  to  claim." 

I  met  a  number  of  young  clergymen,  and  they 
fought  it  with  me.     They  said: 

"No,  no,  we  feel,  we  feel  to  have  it,  and  we  know 
we  have  got  it." 

But  said  I  to  them:  "How  will  you  do  to-morrow 
morning  when  you  do  not  feel  it?    Now  I,  who  take 


THE  ANOINTING  WITH  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT         97 

by  faith,  am  independent  of  feeling  to-morrow  or  any 
future  time." 

Whilst  we  were  talking,  a  young  merchant  who 
was  listening,  said:  "I  want  to  say  a  word.  You  par- 
sons have  been  talking  a  great  deal  about  the  Holy 
Spirit.  Now  I  know  I  have  received  the  Holy  Spirit 
when  I  have  most  of  Jesus,  and  in  my  place  at  Glas- 
gow, if  I  miss  the  presence  of  Jesus  for  half  an  hour,  I 
go  into  my  counting=house,  and  kneel  down  and  say: 
'  Holv  Spirit,  what  have  I  done  to  Thee  that  Thou 
hast  taken  from  me  the  sense  of  the  presence  of 
Christ?'" 

''O,"  we  said,  "when  we  know  we  have  most  of 
Christ,  when  we  love  Him  most,  live  for  Him  most, 
we  know  that  the  Holy  Ghost  is  within  us  in  power." 

So,  brothers,  sisters,  may  I  ask  you  to  let  this  day 
be  the  time  of  transaction  with  God.  Walk  to  and 
fro,  and  say  if  you  like : 

**I  sadly  need  a  Pentecost.  As  far  as  I  know,  I 
fulfil  the  conditions,  in  my  will  at  least." 

Then  put  your  hand  upon  your  heart,  and  say: 

"  I  do  now  receive." 

Let  the  devil  say  what  he  likes.  Keep  reckoning 
that  the  Spirit  of  Christ  rests  upon  you,  and  when 
you  come  to  your  Jordan,  and  the  students  are  there 
to  look  on,  and  you  might  draw  back, — that  Jordan 
representing  your  temptation,  your  mission,  some  bit 
of  work  to  do, — say: 

"  Holy  Spirit,  I  now  trust  Thee  to  do  through  me 
Thy  Pentecostal  work  in  glorifying  Christ." 


NINTH   ADDRESS 

THE  INFILLING  OF  THE  HOLY    SPIRIT 

We  have  followed  Christ  in  His  ascension,  as  en- 
tering the  presence  of  His  Father.  He  asked  and 
received  from  God  the  Holy  Spirit.  We  have  also 
seen  how  Christ  made  Christians.  "  Christ "  means 
"anointed";  "Christian"  means  ** anointed  one." 
The  words  "  chrism  "  and  "  Christ "  are  identical  in 
derivation.  A  man  becomes  truly  a  Christian  when 
he  is  anointed  with  the  Holy  Spirit. 

I  speak  now  of  the  other  aspect  of  Pentecost,  be- 
cause, though  it  is  quite  true  that  Pentecost  means 
the  anointing  on  the  head  and  heart,  it  also  means 
the  infilling  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Therefore,  in  Acts 
2:4  we  are  told  that  they  were  all — women  and  men, 
laymen  and  apostles — all  were  alike  '*  filled  with  "  the 
Holy  Sx)irit. 

Now,  Eph.  5:18  gives  each  one  of  us  a  positive 
command:  "Be  filled  with  the  Spirit."  It  is  very 
remarkable  that  in  Abts  2  and  Ephesians  5  the  infill- 
ing of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  its  effect  is  compared  to  the 
effects  of  wine  on  the  physical  system.  "  Be  not 
drunk  with  wine,  wherein  is  excess,  but  be  filled  with 
the  Spirit,"  and  you  can  never  have  excess,  you  can 
never  have  too  much  of  the  Spirit. 

There  are  three  points  of  comparison  that  I  want 
you  to  notice — joy,  speech,  power. 

First.     Wine  produces  a  sense  of  exhilaration.     A 


THE  INFILLING  OF  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT  «J9 

drunken  man  will  sing  as  he  reels  to  his  home,  and 
when  a  man  is  really  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost  he  be- 
comes a  singing  Christian,  and  a  Spirit- filled  church 
is  always  a  singing  church.  Every  great  outburst  of 
the  Holy  Spirit's  power  has  been  accompanied  by 
singing.  Luther's  revival  spread  through  Germany 
by  singing  Luther's  hymns.  Whitfield  was  accom- 
panied by  a  Wesley,  and  Moody  by  a  Sankey,  and  in 
Germany  the  Moravian  Church  has  given  to  us  the 
songs  of  Gerhardt,  with  many  more. 

Secondly.  A  man  who  is  filled  with  wine  is  gar- 
rulous. He  talks;  you  cannot  keep  him  still.  And 
a  man  who  is  filled  with  the  Holy  Spirit  talks,  he 
cannot  keep  silence,  he  must  tell  what  God  has  done. 

Thirdly.  A  man  who  is  filled  with  wine  is  con- 
scious of  a  great  increase  of  power.  He  feels  as  if 
he  could  stand  alone  against  the  world.  So  the  man 
who  is  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost  is  full  also  of  the 
power  of  God. 

Now  this  filling  of  the  Holy  Spirit  may  come  sud- 
denly, or  more  unconsciously,  just  as  in  Scotland  they 
have  what  they  call  a  "spate  "  of  water,  or  a  well  may 
fill  up  with  water  percolating  in  drop  by  drop. 
Whenever  the  spirit  of  man,  smitten  with  thirst, 
comes  to  Christ,  and  opens  its  whole  content  towards 
Christ,  instantly  Christ  begins  to  infill  that  spirit.  It 
may  not  be  conscious  of  the  gradual  infilling,  but  by 
His  grace  He  will  never  stay  His  hand  until  the 
earthly  system  has  been  filled  to  the  very  full  from 
the  river  of  God,  which  is  full  of  water. 

Now,  there  are  three  tenses  used  in  the  Greek,  of 
this  filling.  In  Acts  13 :  52  we  are  told  of  the  converts 
in  the  highlands  of  Galatia  that  they  were  being  filled 


100  TBE  INFILLING  OF  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT 

with  joy  and  with  the  Holy  Ghost  all  the  time.  They 
were  like  some  mountain  tarn  which  is  always  being 
filled  from  the  melting  of  the  snows  above;  and  as 
the  water  flows  on  to  enrich  the  pasture  land  beneath, 
so  water  is  ever  percolating  in  from  the  upper  snow. 

0  child  of  God,  be  a  brimming  lakelet  or  tarn,  on  the 
one  hand  always  giving  out  to  a  dying  world,  but 
always  kept  full  because  you  receive  every  moment 
from  Jesus! 

Then  Acts  6:5  tells  us  that  Stephen  was  a  man  full 
of  the  Holy  Ghost — "  full,"  the  adjective;  from  which 

1  gather  that  he  was  an  equable  man.  He  did  not 
have  fits  and  starts,  he  was  not  now  lifted  up  and  then 
depressed;  but  always,  whenever  you  met  Stephen, 
there  was  the  same  heavenly  look,  the  same  tender 
gracious  word,  the  same  perfect  beauty  of  character, 
and  the  same  eagerness  to  glorify  Christ.  O,  beloved 
friends,  I  wish  that  you  may  keep  on  being  filled,  and 
that  you  may  always  be  full! 

And  then,  Acts  4:8  tells  us  that  Peter,  though  he 
had  been  filled  on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  nevertheless 
was  suddenly  filled  again  as  he  had  to  speak  to  the 
Sanhedrin.  I  suppose  that  for  a  moment  he  cen- 
tered himself  on  God;  he  looked  up,  and  received  a 
sudden  and  immediate  and  complete  equipment  for 
his  work. 

Beloved  minister,  you  may  be  a  man  full  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  in  your  family,  but  when  you  kneel  in 
your  vestry  before  entering  your  pulpit,  before  at- 
tempting a  mission,  before  undertaking  any  definite 
work  for  God  by  lip  or  pen,  be  sure  that  you  are 
specially  equipped  by  a  new  reception  of  the  Holy 
Ghost.     In  my  own  life  I  have  found  it  absolutely 


THE  INFILLING  OF  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT  101 

necessary,  after  such  a  mission  as  this,  when  the 
whole  system  has  become  exhausted  by  the  demand 
made  upon  the  spirit,  the  nerve,  and  the  physical 
strength,  to  get  quietly  away  with  God,  and  to  renew 
one's  strength  by  receiving  out  of  the  fulness  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  breathing  in  a  new  supply. 

Now  you  will  notice  also  that  the  work  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  of  Pentecost,  filling  the  heart,  has 

CERTAIN  DEFINITE   RESULTS 

in  the  character  of  the  believer;  and  these  are  set 
forth  by  Christ  in  three  verses,  each  of  which  begins 
with  the  words:  "In  that  day."  When  the  day  of 
Pentecost  breaks  upon  the  spirit,  it  brings  with  it 
three  distinct  things. 

In  John  14:  20  the  Lord  says:"  In  that  day,  in  that 
day  when  the  light  of  Pentecost  has  stolen  through 
the  window-pane  of  your  heart,  and  has  chased  out 
the  darkness,  and  has  filled  you  within — in  that  day  you 
shall  know  three  things:  (1.)  That  I  am  in  My 
Father,  in  the  light  of  light,  in  the  rare  atmosphere 
of  deity,  in  God.  You  shall  know  that  I  am  in  the 
Father,  so  that  you  will  never  be  frightened  of  the 
Father  again,  but  will  come  to  Him  at  any  moment 
knowing  that  I  am  in  the  heart  of  God.  O  child, 
thou  shalt  not  fear  God  any  more  when  the  Holy 
Spirit  has  shown  Jesus  in  Him.  (2.)  That  ye  are 
in  me.  That  is  your  standing.  Your  nature 
may  be  frail  and  fickle,  your  sins  may  some- 
times overwhelm,  but  you  shall  know  that  I  am 
in  the  Father,  and  ye  in  me,  accepted  in  the  Beloved. 

So  near,  bo  very  near  to  God, 

I  cannot  nearer  be, 
For  in  the  person  of  His  Son 

I  am  as  near  as  He. 


102  THE  INFILLING  OF  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT 

(3.)  I  in  you."  That  is  what  I  spoke  of  in  a 
preceding  address,  the  revelation  of  the  indwelling 
Christ. 

It  is  a  beautiful  thing  to  know  that  the  14th  chap- 
ter of  John  begins  with  our  mansion  or  abiding^place 
(R.  V.  Marg.)  with  God  and  ends  with  God's 
mansion  or  abiding-place  with  us;  for  the  same 
word  which  is  used  of  the  mansions  of  the 
Father's  house  in  the  second  verse,  is  used  in  the 
twenty-third  verse  of  God's  mansion  in  the  spirit  of 
the   believer. 

Men  say  to  me:  ''Is  not  this  mysticism  that  you 
teach?" 

I  answer:  "  Every  mystic  is  not  a  Christian,  but 
every  Christian  is  bound  to  be  a  mystic,  because 
mysticism  is  the  indwelling  of  God." 

Religion  amongst  the  Hindoos  is  the  indwelling  of 
God,  but  it  disappoints  them;  they  cannot  reach  it 
because  they  seek  it  by  endeavoring  for  the  absorp- 
tion of  themselves,  the  loss  of  their  individuality,  in 
God.  We  as  Christians  seek  also  to  know  the  in- 
dwelling of  God,  but  it  is  not  by  the  loss  of  our  indi- 
viduality, but  by  the  reception  of  God's  nature  as  the 
determining  power  working  through  the  individual- 
ity which  He  has  given  to  us.  "  Ye  shall  know  that 
I  am  in  the  Father,  and  ye  in  me,  and  I  in  you." 

Now  turn  to  John  16:  23:  ''And  in  that  day  ye 
shall  ask  me  nothing."  The  Greek  word  is:  "Ye 
shall  ask  me  no  questions." 

Up  to  that  time  the  disciples  kept  asking  questions 
suggested  by  the  intellect,  curious  questions;  but 
when  the  day  of  Pentecost  came  they  did  not  need 


THE  INFILLING  OF  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT  103 

to  ask  questions  with  the  intellect,  because  they  saw 
truth  with  the  heart. 

If  I  am  blind,  I  ask  my  friend  concerning  the 
landscape:  **  Are  there  mountains?  "  "  Yes."  "  Riv- 
ers?" "Yes."  "Cornfields?"  "Yes."  I  ask 
question  after  question,  and  get  what  help  I  can. 
But  when  my  eyes  are  opened,  or  when  the  light  of 
the  morning  breaks,  I  ask  no  more  questions  about 
the  contour,  the  configuration  of  the  landscape, 
because  I  see  it  for  myself. 

Before  you  have  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost  you 
will  be  curious  about  many  questions;  but  when  the 
Holy  Ghost  shall  come  you  shall  know  all  things 
clearly  with  the  heart.  1  often  think  that  woman's 
nature  enables  me  to  understand  how  we  know  in  the 
power  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  A  man  is  said  to  reason 
his  way,  a  woman  by  the  quick  glance  of  her  intu- 
ition sees  what  she  cannot  reason,  and  she  jumps  to 
a  conclusion  to  which  her  husband  reasons  his  way 
ten  minutes  later.  So  is  it  with  the  heart  when  it  is 
illumined  by  the  Holy  Spirit.  The  pure  heart  of  the 
believer  leaps  to  conclusions  which  eye  hath  not 
seen,  nor  ear  heard,  nor  the  reason  of  man  conceived. 
The  faculty  of  knowledge  is  altered:  we  no  longer 
seek  it  by  the  intellect,  but  by  the  heart.  The  busy 
intellectual  disputant  becomes  the   deep   intuitioner. 

And  then,  thirdly,  turn  to  John  16:26;  '^  In  that 
day  ye  shall  ask  in  my  name." 

Now  in  the  Bible  "  name  "  stands  for  "  nature," 
and  you  are  always  perfectly  justified  in  substituting 
the  word  "  nature  "  for  "  name."  So  Christ  says  that 
when  the  day  of  Pentecost  has  come,  we  shall  ask  in 


104  THE  INFILLING  OF  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT 

His  nature,  or  rather,  that  His  nature  will  ask 
through  us;  and  whenever  the  nature  of  Jesus  asks 
anything  of  the  Father,  it  asks  that  which  the  Father 
is  bound  to  give,  because  He  and  Jesus  are  one. 

In  one's  earlier  life  one  asks  for  a  great  many 
things  which  God  never  gives;  and  we  are  sometimes 
startled,  and  begin  to  think  that  prayer  is  inopera- 
tive. But  further  on  in  life  we  allow  our  prayers  to 
pass  the  test  of  the  nature  of  Christ;  and  as  one  re- 
quest after  another  arises  in  our  hearts,  we  bring  it 
into  the  light  of  the  nature  of  Jesus,  and  there  are  a 
great  many  things  that  we  therefore  reject.  I  cannot 
ask  this,  I  dare  not  ask  that,  I  feel  that  they  would 
be  incongruous  with  the  nature  of  my  Lord,  which  now 
has  become  my  nature,  and  so  would  ask  only  in  the 
nature  of  Christ. 

I  find  in  my  own  life  that  I  do  not  pray  quite  so 
long  as  I  used.  I  pray  more  slowly.  I  sit,  or  stand, 
or  wait  before  God  until  I  tell  what  Christ  is  want- 
ing at  that  moment,  and  when  in  my  heart,  by  the 
Holy  Spirit,  the  prayer  of  my  Lord  is  made  clear  to 
me,  I  take  it  up.  I  launch  my  little  canoe  upon  the 
current  of  my  Savior's  intercession,  and  I  have  what 
I  ask. 

There  are  indeed  two  Advocates,  two  Paracletes. 
There  is  the  Paraclete  in  the  heart  of  God, — Jesus; 
and  there  is  the  Paraclete  in  the  heart  of  the  believ- 
er,— the  Holy  Ghost;  and  these  two  Paracletes  are 
one.  When  the  Holy  Spirit  breathes  your  prayer. 
He  will  inspire  that  which  it  is  on  the  heart  of  Jesus 
to  entreat,  and  you  have  the  perfect  circle  of  prayer 
— the  Father,  the  Son,  the  Holy  Ghost  in  you,  your 
voice  raised  in  unison  with  the  music  of  the  Holy 


THE  INFILLING  OF  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT  105 

Trinity;  and  so  the  desire  wliicli  emanated  from  God 
the  Father,  and  was  reflected  in  His  natnre  by  Christ 
the  Son,  and  was  commnnicated  to  yon  by  the  Holy 
Spirit,  is  flashed  back  from  you,  and  yon  know  yon 
have  the  i^etitions  that  you  desire  of  Him.  That 
seems  to  me  to  be 

THE   PHILOSOPHY   OF    PRAYER. 

But  there  is  a  fourth  work  of  the  Spirit  of  God. 
In  John  15:  26,  27,  it  is  said:  "He,  (that  is,  the 
Spirit)  shall  hear  icitncss  of  Me,  and  ye  shall  bear 
witness." 

Now  the  Church  is  in  the  world  not  to  argue,  not 
to  defend  God,  not  to  stand  forth  as  an  advocate  for 
God,  but  simply  to  witness  to  the  truth  of  the  unseen 
and  eternal.  And  directly,  brother  ministers,  yon 
and  I  step  away  from  that  position,  and  become  ad- 
vocates pleading  instead  of  witnesses  bearing  testi- 
mony, we  step  away  from  the  position  of  power. 
You  and  I  and  the  Church  are  called  to  bear  witness 
to  the  death  of  Christ,  His  resurrection,  His  ascen- 
sion, and  the  advent  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  You  can 
talk  as  yon  like  about  His  social  work,  about  His 
teaching,  about  the  philosophy  of  the  administration 
of  His  kingdom;  but  your  'prime  work  is  to  stand  up 
before  men,  and  say: 

"I  have  known  and  tasted  and  handled  of  the 
death,  resurrection,  ascension  and  return  of  Jesus 
Christ  our  Lord." 

And  whilst  you  do  that  the  Holy  Spirit  says: 
"  Amen." 

The  other  day  I  came  on  a  saw  pit.  I  could  see  a 
man  sawing  a  great  beam  of  timber  with  the  long  saw 


106  THE  INFILLING  OF  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT 

which  rose  and  fell,  and  though  I  could  not  see  his 
confederate,  I  knew  that  down  in  the  pit  there  was 
another  man  who  had  hold  of  the  saw;  and  I  could 
tell  the  rhythm  and  the  motion  of  the  body  of  the 
man  I  could  not  see,  by  noticing  the  rhythm  and  the 
motion  of  the  body  of  the  man  I  could  see.  And  I 
saw  at  once  that  that  was  an  illustration  of  the  co= 
witness  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

When  a  man  stands  up  in  his  pulpit  and  says; 
"Jesus  died,"  the  Holy  Ghosts  says:  "He  did, 
and  it  was  by  Me  that  He  offered  Himself  to 
God."  When  the  minister  says:  "He  rose,"  the 
Holy  Ghost  says:  "He  did:  and  it  was  by  My  power 
that  He  was  raised  and  declared  to  be  the  Son  of 
God."  When  we  say:  "He  went  back  to  God  and 
liveth  and  reigneth  with  the  Father,"  the  Holy 
Ghost,  brooding  in  the  Church,  saj^s:  "  Yea,  Amen,  I 
have  just  left  Him;  I  am  in  loving  fellowship  with 
Him;  I  and  the  Son  and  the  Father  are  one." 

O,  brother  ministers,  ever  since  I  learned  this,  my 
work  has  been  quite  altered,  because  now,  when  I 
enter  my  pulpit,  I  go  as  only  a  very  small  part  of  the 
great  machinery  which  is  in  operation.  I  have  to 
speak,  but  the  Holy  Ghost  is  all  the  time  working 
with  me,  and  hence  the  salvation  of  my  people  does 
not  stand  in  the  wisdom  of  men,  but  in  the  power  and 
demonstration  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  If  they  received 
simply  upon  my  putting  of  it,  the  effect  would  be 
evanescent,  but  when  the  Holy  Spirit  demonstrates  a 
thing  to  the  conscience  it  is  permanent. 

You  and  I  were  once  at  school.  We  had  a  problem 
in  geometry.  We  might  have  seen  at  a  glance  that 
such  and  such  a  thing  must  be  so,  but  we  were  called 


THE  INFILLING  OF  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT  107 

upon  to  demonstrate  it,  and  the  demonstration  would 
be  our  conclusion.  So  the  Holy  Ghost  establishes 
the  word  of  the  child,  the  servant  of  God,  in  the 
Bible  class,  in  the  mission,  and  in  the  church. 

In  London,  in  the  winter,  after  the  services  of  the 
church  are  over,  we  have  our  magicdantern  service 
from  nine  to  ten  o'clock  for  people  whose  clothes  are 
too  shabby  to  come  among  the  more  respectable  audi- 
ences. It  is  so  dark  that  Nicodemus  does  not  mind 
coming  in.  I  carefully  prepare  my  sermon,  and  keei) 
one  proof  of  it,  and  give  the  other  to  my  secretary, 
who  operates  from  the  gallery.  I  begin  to  preach. 
When  I  say:  "  God  so  loved  the  world  that  He  gave 
His  only  begotten  Son,"  I  know  that  as  I  utter  the 
words  he  flashes  on  the  screen  behind  me  a  picture  of 
the  world,  a  globe  with  a  scroll  around  it:  "God  is 
love."  When  I  say:  "Now  is  the  time  to  accept  this 
Christ,"  the  word  "now"  will  appear  behind  me. 
And  if  I  speak  of  the  Savior's  dying  love  and  pity, 
instantly  I  know,  by  previous  agreement,  that  Dor6's 
picture  of  the  crucified  Christ  is  appealing  to  the 
people.  I  do  not  need  to  look  to  see  if  it  is  there,  be- 
cause the  awe,  the  reverence,  the  silence  of  the 
people  indicate  to  me  that  that  great  sight  is  repre- 
sented on  the  canvass.  My  secretrary  demonstrates 
to  the  eye  what  I  say  to  the  ear. 

My  meaning,  I  trust,  is  distinct.  You  and  I  may 
go  to  work  for  God,  may  go  into 

PARTNERSHIP  WITH  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT. 

The  word  "  communion,"  which  the  minister  invokes 
upon  the  people  as  they  leave,  means  fellowship,  com- 
mon action;  and  the  minister  stands  before  the  people 


108  THE  INFILLING  OF  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT 

in  the  communion  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  the  Holy 
Ghost  demonstrates  the  word  he  feebly  speaks. 

O,  men  of  God,  mind  that  you  are  always  so  filled 
w^itli  the  Spirit  that  wherever  you  go  the  Holy  Spirit 
may  be  prepared  to  go  with  you.  You  know  the  old 
Welsh  story  of  the  crow^ded  congregation  that  waited 
for  John  Ellis.  They  sent  for  him.  The  man  came 
back  to  say:  "I  heard  him  talking  to  somebody,  and 
I  did  not  like  to  disturb  him."  They  said:  "Go 
again  and  rap."  He  went,  and  came  back  and  said: 
"  I  heard  him  talking  still,  and  I  heard  him 
say,  '  I  will  not  go  unless  you  come  along  too'."  John 
Ellis  came  in  five  minutes  later,  and  the  One  he  had 
been  talking  to  came  with  him,  though  no  one  sav>^ 
Him;  and  they  had  a  meeting  of  wonderful  power. 
Brother  ministers,  never  go  unless  He  comes  too. 

In  Acts  11:  15,  Peter,  speaking  about  Cornelius 
and  the  descent  of  the  Holy  Ghost  in  Cornelius' 
house,  says  rather  ruefully,  as  if  he  looked  back  on 
a  sermon  which  was  only  half  delivered: 

"  As  I  began  to  speak,  the  Holy  Ghost  fell." 

Peter  had  only  got  through  his  introduction — he 
had  not  got  as  far  as  his  first  head, — and  the  Holy 
Ghost  came  down,  and  said: 

"  Man,  you  have  made  a  good  start,  and  into  your  in- 
troduction you  have  put  the  life  and  death  and  work 
of  Jesus.  That  is  text  enough  for  me.  Now  stand 
aside,  and  I  will  finish  the  sermon." 

"  As  I  began  to  si3eak! "  Why,  I  am  thankful  to  God 
if  I  have  been  able  to  speak  for  half  an  hour,  and  to- 
wards the  end  of  my  sermon  I  can  see  the  Holy  Spir- 
it has  fallen  upon  my  people.  But  O  that  we  might  be 
so  filled  with  the  Spirit  and  care  so  much  about  the 


THE  INFILLING  OF  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT  109 


co-operation  of  the  Spirit  that  it  might  be  with  us  as 
with  Finney  or  Peter.  It  is  said  of  Finney,  more 
than  once  in  his  autobiography,  that  if  he  came  into 
a  large  factory,  or  into  a  church  crowded  with  people, 
there  was  such  an  indescribable  power  about  his  very 
aspect  that  in  many  cases  a  revival  broke  out  before 
Finney  could  speak  a  word.  Men,  brother  ministers, 
let  us  aim  for  that! 

Now,  finally,  here  are  the  seven  conditions  on 
which  you  may  have  this  mighty  co-operating 
power. 

SEVEN  CONDITIONS 

(1.)  Yonmusthe  Holy  Ghost  Jillecl  Peter  was 
filled  thrice;  once  in  the  second  chapter  of  Acts,  and 
twice  in  the  fourth  chapter.  He  was  a  Holy  Ghost 
filled  man  in  character,  and  therefore  he  could  count 
on  the  co-operation  of  the  Spirit. 

(2.)     You  must  be   emptied,    Peter    was   empty. 
He  spent  many  days   in   a    tanner's   house.     I   can 
hardly  imagine  how   he    got   into   such   an  empty- 
ing place.     In  the  first  place,  it  was  a  very  insalubri- 
out  spot.     Of  all  hotels   it  is    about  the   last  place  I 
would  select.     The  odor  would  be  anything  but  sa- 
vory.    And  then,  in  the  next  place,  as  a  Jew  it  must 
have  been  defiling  to  him  to  be  in  such  close  associa- 
tion with  carcases.     And  yet  he  spent  many  days  as 
in    a  city   alley;   this    apostle,    this  man   who   had 
preached  through  large  regions,  who  had  raised  Ene- 
as and  Dorcas,  got  down  to  the  tanner's  house.     And 
a  man  will  have  to  come  to  an  end  of   himself  before 
the  Holy  Ghost  will  work  with  him. 

(3  )     You  must  be  a  man  of  prayer.    Peter  was  a 
man  of  prayer.     Acts  10:  9:  ''Peter  went  up  upon  the 


110  THE  INFILLING  OF  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT 

housetop  to  pray,  about  the  sixth  hour."  Some  may 
think  that  when  I  say:  "Do  not  pray  so  much,  but 
take,"  I  mean  that  they  are  to  give  up  their  lonely 
hours  of  fellowship  with  God.  Not  at  all.  No  true 
experience  can  ever  exist  apart  from  communion  with 
God.  But  mind,  instead  of  asking  for  so  many 
things  that  God  cannot  give,  you  will  ask  for  a  few 
things  definitely,  you  will  be  led  out  in  prayer,  you 
will  feel  you  cannot  help  praying  for  those  few 
things,  and  you  will  have  so  much  to  do  in  praising 
and  thanking  God  for  giving  you  your  heart's  de- 
sire that  your  prayer-times  will  tend  to  be  longer 
rather  than  shorter. 

(4).  You  must  be  willing  to  give  up  prejudice. 
When  Peter  was  first  commanded  to  kill  and  eat  of 
the  creatures  let  down  from  heaven  in  the  sheet,  he 
said:  "Not  so,  Lord:  for  I  have  never  eaten  anything 
that  is  common  or  unclean."  But  after  thinking 
about  the  vision,  he  was  willing  to  give  up  lifelong 
prejudices. 

I  have  met  men  in  my  life  who  have  refused  to 
receive  these  teachings  about  the  Holy  Ghost,  which 
in  these  latter  days  God  has  made  known  to  His 
church.     They  have  said  with  Peter: 

"  Not  so,  Lord.  I  believe  in  the  good  old  way  of 
putting  things,  and  I  refuse  to  accept  any  further 
light  that  may  break  from  Thy  Word." 

That  very  often  stereotypes  a  man's  power.  He 
cannot  advance  with  God.  If  Peter  had  refused  to 
advance  with  God,  God  would  have  gone  on  without 
him.     Be  sure  to  advance  with  God. 

(5.)  You  must  be  Spirit- guided.  This  also  was 
true  of  Peter.     The  Spirit  said:   "Three   men  seek 


THE  INFILLING  OF  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT  ill 

thee;  go  with  them." 

Now  listen.  Never  take  an  impulse  in  your  heart 
as  being  final.  It  may  be  of  the  devil,  or  it  may  be 
of  the  Spirit  of  God.  The  devil  often  comes  as  an 
angel  of  light,  but  you  may  always  know  when  the 
impulse  is  of  God,  first,  by  its  becoming  a  settled 
purpose.  You  may  always  know  the  devil  because 
he  asks  questions.  The  devil  always  deals  with  notes 
of  interrogation,  and  whenever  you  have  a  lot  of 
notes  of  interrogation  flitting  about  your  mind,  you 
know  it  is  the  dust  raised  by  the  devil.  When  God 
deals  with  you  He  is  always  definite,  and  the  impres- 
sion grows  stronger  every  time  you  pray.  But  any 
impression  from  God's  Spirit  is  always  corroborated 
by  two  things:  by  the  Word,  and  by  circumstances. 
The  Spirit  of  God  and  the  Word  of  God  are  parallel 
lines.  And  if  you  are  truly  called  of  God,  circum- 
stances will  coincide  with  the  spiritual  impulse. 
The  inward  impulse,  the  Word  of  God,  and  the  out- 
ward circumstances  will  be  in  line.  So  it  was  with 
Peter.  The  Spirit  said:  "  Three  men  seek  thee,"  and 
suddenly  he  heard  three  men  rapping  down  stairs. 
Always  wait  for  the  knock  of  the  man,  as  well  as  the 
impulse  from  the  Holy  Ghost,  agreeing  with  the 
Word  of  God. 

(6.)  You  must  be  humble.  When  this  Roman  of- 
ficer fell  before  Peter  the  fisherman,  Peter  lifted  him 
up,  and  said:  "  Stand  on  your  feet;  I  also  am  a  man." 
There  was  nothing  of  the  priest  about  Peter.  In  our 
country  the  priest  is  rather  glad  to  have  a  man  at  his 
feet;  but  Peter,  a  sincere  transparent  servant  of  God, 
did  not  look  down,  but  said: 

"Man,  stand  up!" 


112  fBE  INFILLING  OF  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT 

A  truly  humble  soul  is  necessary  for  the  co-opera- 
tion of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

(7.)     You  must  seek  the  glory  of  Christ. 

My  secretary  and  I  agree  upon  our  sermon  for  the 
magic  lantern  service  before  we  start;  and  if  you 
want  the  Holy  Ghost  to  heli^  you  in  your  preaching, 
you  and  the  Holy  Ghost  must  agree  together  what 
you  are  going  to  preach  about.  If  you  are  going  to 
talk  about  social  reform,  I  should  not  be  at  all  sur- 
prised if  the  Holy  Ghost  should  say: 

*'  If  you  are  going  to  preach  that,  you  must  do  it 
yourself,  for  I  will  have  nothing  to  do  with  it. 

You  will  say:  "I  want  to  preach  on  the  last  polit- 
ical crisis." 

The  Holy  Ghost  will  answer:  "Very  well,  go  on; 
but  you  must  go  your  own  way.  I  cannot  help 
you  with  that." 

Or  you  will  come  to  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  say: 
"Blessed  Spirit,  what  shall  I  preach  from?"  and 
there  will  steal  into  your  heart  the  name  "  Jesus!" 
and  the  Holy  Ghost  will  say: 

"You  may  begin  where  you  like,  you  may  deal 
with  any  historical  subject  you  like,  but  you  must  end 
with  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ." 

Some  time  ago  one  of  my  friends  went  out  with  a 
little  boy  who  was  leading  him  across  the  common 
from  the  railroad  station  to  the  house.  My  friend 
said  to  him; 

"Go  to  Sunday-school?" 

"Yes." 

"What  did  your  teacher  talk  about  last  Sunday 
afternoon?  " 

"O,  he  was  talking  about  Jacob." 


THE  INFILLING  OF  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT  113 

•'And  what  did  he  take  the  Sunday   Defore  that?" 
"  O,  he  was  talking  about  prayer." 
"Well,  did  your  teacher  talk  about  Jesus?" 
"  O,  no,"  said  the  little  fellow,  "  that's  at  the  other 
end  of  the  book." 

Now  I  hold  that  Jesus  is  not  at  the  other  end  of 
the  Book,  but  He  is  all  through  the  Book,  and  every 
chapter  and  every  verse  and  every  incident  in  the  Bi- 
ble may  somehow  be  made  a  road  to  Jesus. 

I  do  not  say  that  on  week  evenings  a  minister  may 
not  deal  with  public  questions.  No  doubt  the  world 
will  stand  still  until  he  tells  it  what  to  do.  But  I  do 
think  that  whilst  he  has  a  desire  for  the  discussion  of 
those  great  problems,  with  the  reporters  listening, 
whether  on  week  evening  or  on  Sunday,  for  the  most 
part — I  am  not  offering  to  lay  down  any  absolute 
rule,  because  in  the  case  of  arbitration,  when  fear 
spread  over  our  hearts  that  our  two  great  sister  coun- 
tries might  be  embroiled  in  strife,  the  pulpit  spoke 
out  and  saved  (as  I  believe)  the  question  from  be- 
coming serious  on  each  side  of  the  Atlantic — but  for 
the  most  part  there  must  be  the  constant  uplifting  of 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  in  His  glory  as  the  Savior  of 
men.  And  as  you  dare  to  do  that  simply  and  hum- 
bly, the  power  of  God  the  Holy  Ghost  will  witness  to 
the  living  Christ  in  your  church,  in  the  Sunday-school. 
It  matters  little  enough  to  God  what  you  are  in  intel- 
lectual power,  or  natural  gifts  and  eloquence.  He 
simply  wants  a  nature  yielded  absolutely  to  Him, 
and  a  voice  raised  for  Jesus,  and  the  Holy  Ghost  will 
do  everything  else. 


TENTH  ADDRESS 

HEART  REST 

I  have  left  out  of  my  addresses  a  great  many 
themes,  such  as  justification,  and  adoption,  and  inspi- 
ration, and  the  second  premillenial  advent,  all  of 
which  I  steadfastly  hold.  I  have  tried  to  hold  up  to 
you  the  doctrines  of  the  inner  life,  not  the  objective, 
but  the  subjective,  side  of  Christianity.  But  in  ex- 
pounding the  latter  you  must  not  suppose  that  I  do 
not  with  equal  tenacity  hold  the  objective,  the  for- 
mer. 

I  hardly  know  how  to  finish  this  series,  except  by 
speaking  upon  the  rest  of  God.  If  I  can  only  be  the 
Joshua  to  conduct  you  into  rest,  my  work  will  be 
worthily  finished;  for  the  climax  of  the  teaching  of 
the  inner  life  is  always  the  perfect  rest  of  the  heart. 

The  voice  that  breathed  o'er  Eden  spoke  of  rest. 
In  Gen.  2:  3  we  are  told  of  the  rest  of  God,  and 
upon  that  day  there  fell  no  night,  because  the  rest 
of  God  has  no  shadow  in  it,  and  never  terminates. 
God  has  left  open  the  door.  It  stands  wide  open, 
and  every  heart  which  He  has  made  may  share  in  it. 
A  rest  which  is  full  of  work;  but  like  the  cyclone,  all 
the  atoms  of  which  revolve  in  turbulent  motion 
around  the  central  cavity  of  rest,  so  do  all  the  activ- 
ities of  God  revolve  around  His  deepest  heart  which 
is  tranquil  and  serene.  And  it  is  possible,  if  you 
and  I  learn  the  lesson,  amid  anxiety  and  sorrow  and 

lU 


HEART  REST  115 


trial  and  pressure  of  work  always  to  carry  a  heart  so 
peaceful,  so  still,  so  serene  as  to  be  like  the  depth 
of  the  Atlantic  which  is  not  disturbed  by  the  turbu- 
lent winds  that  sweep  its  surface. 

Now  this  rest  of  God  spoken  of  in  Genesis  was 
not  exhausted  by  the  Sabbath,  or  by  Canaan;  for 
after  each  of  these  had  existed  for  many  a  century 
God  still  spoke  of  His  rest  as  being  unoccupied.  And 
at  last  in  Matt.  11;  28,  29,  a  simple  peasant  (so 
He  seemed,)  stood  up  amid  a  number  of  peasants 
and  fisher-folk  and  others,  and  said: 

"On  this  breast  of  Mine  is  a  pillow  for  every 
heavy  heart.  My  breast  is  broad  enough,  My  heart 
is  deep  enough.  I  offer  Myself  to  all  weary  ones 
in  every  clime  and  age  as  Shiloh,  the  rest^giver";  for 
Shiloh  in  Him  had  come. 

One  feels  that  here  is  the  accent  of  Deity.  He 
says: 

"I  am  meek  and  lowly  in  heart." 
And  yet  He  assumes  to  Himself  the  prerogative  of 
giving  rest  to  all  that  labor  and  are  heavydaden. 
How  can  you  possibly  account  for  the  meeting  of 
humility  so  great  with  pretentions  so  enormous  in 
this  meekest  of  men  unless  He  be  more  than  man, 
the  Son  of  God  incarnate?  You  will  notice  that  as 
He  stands  there  upon  some  mountain  slope,  with  Chor- 
azin,  Bethsaida  and  Capernaum  on  the  landlocked 
lake  of  Galilee  at  His  feet,  He  speaks  of  two  kinds  of 
rest,  the  rest  He  gives,  and  the  deeper  rest  which 
He  shows  us  how  to  find.  "  I  will  give  you  rest," 
He  says,  and  then  in  a  softer  undertone  He  whispers: 
"  Take  My  yoke  and  you  shall  find  rest." 

I  will  not  speak  now  about  the  rest  He  gives— vest 


116  EEART  REST 


from  the  guilt  of  sin,  rest  from  its  penal  ty,  rest  from 
conviction,  rest  from  an  accusing  conscience,  rest  from 
the  dread  and  the  wrath  of  God.  That  rest  He  gave 
you,  beloved,  when  you  knelt  years  ago  at  the  cross= 
foot,  and  from  those  parched  lips  the  dying  Christ, 
your  priest  and  intercessor,  gave  rest  unto  your  soul, 
and  being  justified  by  faith  you  had  peace  with  God 
through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

I  will  not  speak  of  this,  but  of  something  deeper, 
because  I  find  that  there  are  tens  of  thousands  of 
Christians  who  have  got  the  first  rest,  but  have  not 
got  the  second.  They  could  look  death  in  the  face  with- 
out wavering,  but  they  cannot  look  jjanic,  disaster, 
bereavement,  pain  or  trial  in  the  face  without  disquiet. 

"You  shall  find  rest,"  but  you  must  look  for  it.  I 
want  to  show  you  where  to  find  it,  and  hoic;  in  three 
ways,  which  are  one,  for  they  converge  in  one. 

I. 

First.     You  must  take  His  yoke. 

Now,  at  first  sight  it  appears  ridiculous  that  those 
who  labor  and  are  heavy  laden  should  find  rest  by 
having  the  imposition  of  a  new  yoke  or  burden,  how- 
ever light.  He  says:  "My  yoke  is  easy.  My  burden 
is  light."  But  then,  even  an  easy  yoke  with  a  light 
burden  imposed  on  laboring  and  weary  souls  would 
surely  not  give  them  rest.  How  can  it  be?  Ah, 
listen!  It  is  not  a  yoke  that  Jesus  imposes,  but  it  is 
the  yoke  that  He  Himself  carried,  and  a  yoke  by  the 
very  nature  of  it  includes  two.  He  says  then — stand- 
ing beneath  a  yoke — to  you,  weary  soul: 

"  Come  hither  and  share  My  yoke  with  me,  and  we 
will  pull  the  plow  together  through  the  long  furrow 
of  life." 


HEART  REST  117 


I  have  been  told  that  there  are  farms  in  the  West 
so  large  that  yoa  may  start  a  furrow  in  the  morning, 
and  pursue  it  all  day,  and  only  finish  it  at  night,  re- 
turning the  next  day.  Whether  that  be  true  or  not 
I  am  not  here  to  say,  but  it  will  serve  my  purpose. 
One  day  wben  I  was  at  Northfield,  Mr.  Moody  took 
me  to  Mount  Hermon  school.  He  had  a  yoke  of 
beautiful  white  oxen,  and  he  told  me  that  when  one 
of  these  oxen  was  being  yoked  in,  if  the  other  hap- 
pened to  be  on  the  far  side  of  the  farmstead  it  would 
come  trotting  up  and  stand  beside  the  other  until  it 
was  yoked  in  also.  Jesus  stands  to-day  with  the 
yoke  upon  His  shoulder,  and  He  calls  to  each   one, 

and  says: 

''  Come  and  share  My  yoke,  and  let  us  plow  togeth- 
er the  long  furrow  of  your  life.  I  will  be  a  true  yoke^^ 
fellow  to  you.  The  burden  shall  be  on  Me.  Only 
keep  step  with  Me,  and  you  shall  find  rest  to  your 
soul." 

AND  WHAT  WAS   HIS  YOKE? 

Christ's  yoke  was  His  Father's  will.  "  I  delight  to 
do  Thy  will,  O  God."  Now  it  is  not  to  my  purpose 
to  discuss  here  the  human  and  the  divine  side  of 
Christ's  character.  But  to  me  it  is  as  though  Christ 
curtained  off  His  divine  attributes,  as  wo  might  al- 
low the  curtain  of  a  theatre  to  drop  from  the  roof  and 
to  shut  off  the  whole  of  the  apse  behind.  Any  mo- 
ment the  curtain  could  be  lifted,  and  I  suppose  you 
would  still  grant  that  apse  to  be  a  part  of  the  build- 
ing, but  it  would  be  curtained  off  for  a  definite  pur- 
pose. So  for  the  purposes  of  understanding  our  hu- 
man life  in  all  its  aspects,  our  Lord  voluntarily  emp- 
tied Himself,  laid  aside  the  use  of  His  divine  attri- 


118  HEART  REST 


butes,  and  was  content  to  live  as  Elijah,  or  John  the 
Baptist,  or  as  you  and  I  have  to  live,  a  life  of  perpet- 
ual dependence  upon  God. 

Directly  a  creature  lives  so,  it  has  to  take  God's 
plan,  and  then  to  take  God's  pov/er.  Whenever  God 
gives  a  plan.  He  gives  the  soul  everything  which  is 
necessary  for  its  completion.  So  when  Moses  on  the 
mountain  saw  the  plan  of  the  tabernacle,  every  dia- 
mond and  pearl  and  piece  of  gold  and  silver  and 
wood  and  carved  work  and  embroidery  complete, 
painted  by  the  rainbow  upon  the  cloud  or  standing 
before  him  like  a  fair  vision,  he  knew  that  down  be- 
low amongst  the  people  he  could  find  a  duplicate  for 
everything  that  he  had  seen.  So  Jesus  Christ  was 
always  looking  at  the  Father's  will,  the  Father's  plan, 
and  then  seeking  by  faith  the  Father's  power.  That 
was  His  yoke. 

It  came  into  evidence  so  often.  For  instance,  when 
He  healed  on  the  Sabbath  day,  and  they  accused 
Him,  He  said:  "I  could  not  help  it.  My  Father 
worketh  hitherto,  and  I  could  do  no  other  than  work  out 
what  My  Father  wrought  in."  He  went  across  the 
lake  to  give  His  disciples  a  vacation.  Five  thousand 
hungry  men  broke  in,  and  in  their  advent  He  saw  the 
intrusion  of  His  Father's  plan,  and  adoiDted  it.  He 
started  for  the  home  of  Jairus.  A  woman  with  a 
touch  arrested  Him,  and  in  her  slight  touch  He  saw 
again  His  Fathers  will  and  plan,  and  waited  to  heal 
her.  Then  He  moved  leisurely  forward,  knowing 
that  at  the  house  of  Jairus  He  would  have  sufficient 
power  to  raise  his  daughter.  And  in  the  garden  it 
was  His  Father's  will  beneath  which  He  bowed  His 


HEART  REST  119 


meek  soul,  saying:  "  Not  My  will,  but  Thine! " 

In  the  context  also  there  is  a  most  lovely  illustra- 
tion of  this.  He  had  been  wrestling  from  the  human 
side  (so  to  speak)  with  the  great  problem — why  God 
hides  things  from  the  wise  and  prudent,  and  reveals 
them  unto  babes;  and  He  said:  "  Even  so,  Father." 
The  Revised  version  translates  it:  "  Yea,  Father," 
but  it  ought  to  have  translated  it:  "  Yes,  Father." 
Christ's  life  was  a  perpetual  "  Yes  "  to  God.  And  if 
you  want  to  live  a  life  of  rest  you  must  pace  the 
weary  furrow  of  your  life  with  an  upturned  face,  say- 
ing: "  Yes,  yes,  yes."     Always  yes! 

A  gentleman  went  into  a  deaf  and  dumb  institution 
in  London  to  inspect  it,  and  at  the  close  the  boys  and 
girls  were  gathered  at  the  foot  of  the  platform.  He 
wrote  on  the  slate; 

"Why  did  God  make  you  deaf  and  dumb,  and  me 
able  to  hear  and  speak?  " 

A  sob  went  through  the  audience.  Then  a  little 
boy  came  down  the  aisle,  and  took  the  chalk  and 
wrote  the  answer  beneath: 

"  Even  so,  Father:  for  so  it  seemed  good  in  Thy 
sight." 

That  boy  said  "  yes  "  to  God. 

Some  one  says  to  me:  "If  I  always  had  to  do  with 
God,  I  would  not  mind.  If  it  was  disaster,  shipwreck, 
fire,  anything  which  I  could  trust  to  God,  I  hoi^e  I  am 
Christian  enough  to  bow  to  it.  But  what  worries  me, 
and  makes  me  feverish  and  restless,  is  that  things  come 
to  me  from  my  fellow-men.  I  cannot  say  '  yes  '  to 
those." 

Ah,  my  friend,  you  must!    You  will  never  get  rest 


120  HEART  REST 


if  you  do  not.     I  tried  that  myself  once,  and  I  found 
that  I  had  at  last  to  come  to  this,  and  to  make 

NO   DISTINCTION   BETWEEN   WHAT   GOD   APPOINTED   AND 
WHAT  GOD   PERMITTED. 

His  permission  and  His  appointments  are  equally 
His  will.  Job  thought  so,  for  though  Satan  blasted 
his  prosperity  he  said:  "The  Lord  hath  taken  away." 
Joseph  thought  so,  for  he  said:  "  It  was  not  you  that 
sent  me  down  here,  but  God."  David  thought  so, 
because  he  said:  "God  hath  let  Shimei  curse;  let  him 
curse."  Jesus  thought  so,  because  when  Judas  came 
into  the  garden  to  arrest  Him  He  said:  "  The  cup 
that  My  Father  giveth  Me  to  drink,  shall  I  not  drink 
it?"  Though  it  had  been  brought  to  His  lip  by  a 
Judas,  it  had  been  mixed  by  His  Father. 

Now  it  seems  to  me  as  if  you  and  I  are  enclosed  in 
God.  An  arrow  comes  from  the  enemy's  bow.  A 
man  that  hates  me  writes  an  anonymous  letter.  Some 
one  defrauds  me.  Some  woman  sets  an  unkind  story 
afloat  about  me.  The  evil  travels  towards  me.  If 
God  liked.  He  could  let  the  arrow  pass  this  way  or 
that.  But  if  my  God  opens  and  permits  the  evil  to 
pass  through  His  encompassing  power  to  my  heart, 
by  the  time  it  has  passed  through  God  to  me,  it  has 
become  God's  will  for  me.  He  permits  it,  and  that 
is  His  will  for  my  life.  I  do  not  say  that  that  man 
will  escape  his  just  doom.  God  will  deal  with  him. 
I  am  not  going  to  worry  myself  about  him.  In  early 
days  I  would  have  taken  infinite  pains  to  avert  the 
evil  that  men  wished  to  do  me,  or  perhaps  to  repay 
them,  or  to  show  that  the  evil  was  perfectly  unwar- 
ranted.    I  confess  that  I  have  ceased  to  worry  about 


HEART  REST  121 


it.  If  you  silence  one  man  you  will  start  twenty 
more.  It  is  ever  so  much  better  for  peace  of  mind  to 
accept  the  will  of  God,  to  accept  His  permission  and 
His  appointment,  to  look  up  into  His  face,  and  say: 

"Even  so,  Father." 

Someone  says:  "Sir,  oefore  you  go  on,  I  want  you 
to  answer  this  question.  Five  months  ago  I  had  the 
loveliest  little  baby  boy  that  ever  mother  fondled. 
My  husband  and  I  perfectly  doted  upon  that  little 
fellow.  He  took  sickly,  and  we  hung  over  him  and 
prayed  for  him,  and  did  everything  we  could  for  him. 
He  closed  his  eyes  one  day  in  death,  and  I  have  never 
been  able  to  feel  resigned  since  then.  Am  I  very 
wicked?" 

"What  do  you  mean  by  '  not  feeling  resigned'?" 

"  Well,  I  shed  floods  of  tears  when  I  am  alone." 

"My  dear  woman,  that  is  all  right.  Jesus  wept. 
He  gave  you  power  to  weep,  and  tears  relieve  the 
over-tired,  over-wrought  system.  Cry  on  till  God 
shall  wipe  every  tear  away." 

Do  you  say:  "  Sir,  I  do  not  quite  mean  that;  I  feel 
as  though  I  cannot  forgive  God  about  it.  I  cannot 
feel  as  though  I  can  say  yes." 

"No,  because  you  are  beginning  in  the  wrong  part 
of  your  nature.  God  asks  you  to  ivill  submission, 
and  the  emotions  will  follow  suit.  You  cannot  begin 
by  feeling  resigned,  but  you  can  begin  by  icilling  re- 
signation.    Say  to  Him:  '  I  will  Thy  will.'  " 

"  But  I  do  not  feel  it." 

"Nevermind!  Say  it  a  hundred  times  a  day:  'I 
will  Thy  will,'  and  within  a  week  you  will  change 
your  note,  and  instead  you  will  say;  'I  choose  Thy 
will'     By  saying  that  a  hundred  times  a  day  for  a 


122  HEART  REST 


week,  you  will  change  your  note  again :  '  I  delight  in 
Thy  will.' " 

We  begin  by  willing  it,  we  come  to  choose  it,  and 
we  end  by  delighting  in  it.    And  that  is 

THE   SECRET   OF   REST. 

Will  you  take  the  yoke  of  God  to-day?  God's 
will  comes  tons  (first)  by  His  Spirit,  (second)  by 
His  Word,  and  (thirdly)  by  circumstances.  And  I 
think  it  is  in  circumstances  that  we  are  most  tested. 
It  is  just  there  that  we  have  to  meet  God,  and  just  as 
in  some  electric  light  the  two  points  have  to  come 
very  close  together  before  the  light  shines  between 
them,  so  the  point  of  your  will  and  the  point  of  God's 
will  have  to  touch,  and  then  the  light  of  acquiescence 
and  peace  flashes  out. 

You  know  of  course  what  a  corn  on  the  foot  is — 
the  boot  rubs  it,  and  nature  throws  out  a  shield  of 
hard  skin,  which  we  call  a  corn;  and  the  tender  flesh 
is  under  the  corn.  There  have  been  things  in  my 
life  that  fretted  and  worried  me,  and  I  seemed  to 
throw  out  a  little  corn,  and  was  strong  and  hard  and 
bore  up  like  a  martyr,  like  a  hero.  But  I  learned  that 
that  was  not  the  sweetest  way.  I  was  running  away 
from  God's  will  whenever  I  had  a  chance,  and  evaded 
it.  I  have  learned  better  lately — just  quietly  day  by 
day  to  let  God's  will  play  upon  my  heart,  not  running 
from  it,  not  hiding  from  it,  but  taking  it.  I  take 
His  yoke. 

There  are  some  people  who  bear  the  yoke  because 
they  cannot  help  it;  there  are  other  people  who  take 
it.  Have  you  taken  it?  Take  it  now  by  your  will. 
You  have  lost  your  dear  husband  or  wife,  or  you  have 


HEART  REST  123 


lost  your  money,  or  you  have  lost  your  lover.  Now 
it  is  no  use  running  away  into  society.  I  meet  with 
many  girls  who  have  been  disappointed  in  love,  and 
they  have  gone  into  society,  and  made  themselves 
hard,  and  steeled  themselves  against  love  in  every 
way,  while  they  have  been  running  away  from  them- 
selves, from  God.  You  will  live  to  come  to  an  end 
at  last.  You  will  learn  to  look  up  into  the  face  of  the 
Crucified,  and  say: 

"  Jesus,  I  take  the  yoke." 

Why,  you  know  when  you  are  driving  a  young 
horse,  if  that  horse  frets  and  kicks,  it  simply  gets  it- 
self into  a  lather,  but  it  has  to  go  your  way  after  all. 
Much  better  for  the  young  horse  if,  instead  of  plung- 
ing and  kicking  and  fretting,  it  would  only  take  the 
collar  and  the  bit  right  away. 

That  is  what  you  are— a  young  colt;  and  you  are 
foaming  and  fretting  and  working  yourself  into  a  fury. 

You  will  never  get  right  in  that  way.  Come  back, 
and  quietly  take  what  God  permits,  and  understand 
that  in  that  there  is  the  secret  of  rest;  and  a  new 
tranquility  will  come.  You  will  have  your  floods  of 
tears,  but  you  will  say:  "  I  take  the  will  of  God." 

'*  Anoint  your  head  and  wash  your  face."  I  am 
so  very  fond  of  that  verse.  We  go  about  whining: 
"O  dear!  my  suffering!  "  And  so  we  give  people  the 
conception  that  God  is  very  hard,  and  everybody 
pities  us,  and  it  is  rather  comfortable  to  be  pitied. 
You  feel  that  you  are  somebody  if  you  excite  some- 
body else's  pity,  and  in  that  you  get  your  reward.  But 
if  you  anoint  your  head,  and  wash  your  face,  and 
put  on  your  sweetest  look,  and  dress  your  nicest,  and 
live  your  sweet  orderly  self,  hiding  your  pain  in  your 


124:  HEART  REST 


heart,  God  who  seeth  in  secret  will  reward  you  openly, 
and  you  shall  live  to  see  what  you  thought  absolutely 
necessary  to  your  life  to  be  a  handful  of  withered 
leaves.  I  thank  God  for  my  cZis^ appointments,  be- 
cause  I   see  now  that  they  were  His  appointment- 

ments. 

II. 

There  are  the  two  other  methods  by  which  you  can 
find  rest  in  your  soul.  The  one  is  hy  faith.  *'  We 
which  have  believed  do  enter  into  rest."    Hebrews  4: 3. 

The  point  there  is  that  faith  has  two  hands. 
With  one  hand  faith  is.  always  handing  over,  and  with 
the  other  she  is  always  reaching  down;  the  up  and 
the  down  life.  The  angels  went  up  on  the  ladder 
carrying  Jacob's  worries,  and  they  came  down  the 
ladder  bringing  God's  help.  Mind  you  have  the  two 
directions  in  your  life.  Send  them  up,  and  let  them 
come  down. 

Do  you  know  what  it  is  when  you  are  worried  to 
kneel  down  and  say  to  God:  *'  Father,  take  this,"  and 
by  one  definite  act  to  hand  over  the  worry  to  God 
and  leave  it  there?  I  heard  a  lady  say  that  she  had 
been  in  the  habit  of  kneeling  by  her  bedside  and 
handing  things  over  to  God,  and  then  jumping  into 
her  bed  and  by  a  strong  pull  pulling  in  all  the  things 
after  her.  Now  that  is  not  the  best  way.  When 
you  really  trust  God,  you  put  a  thing  into  His  hands, 
and  then  you  do  not  worry  yourself  or  Him.  If 
there  is  one  thing  that  annoys  me  more  than  another, 
it  is  for  a  man  to  say  to  me:  ''Will  you  do  this?" 
And  I  say:  "  Certainly,"  and  then  he  keeps  sending 
postcards  or  letters  to  me  all  the  time  to  work  me  up. 
I  say: 


HEART  REST  125 


"  That  man  does  not  trust  me." 

So  when  I  have  really  handed  a  thing  over  to  God 
I  leave  it  there,  and  I  dare  not  worry  for  fear  it  would 
seem  as  if  I  mistrusted  Him.  But  I  keep  looking  up 
to  Him, — I  cannot  help  doing  that, — and  say: 

"Father,  I  am  trusting." 

Like  my  dog  at  home:  he  used  to  worry  me  very 
much  to  be  fed  at  dinner,  but  he  never  got  any  food 
that  way.  But  lately  he  has  adopted  something  which 
always  conquers  me:  he  sits  under  the  table,  and  puts 
one  paw  on  my  knee.  He  never  barks,  never  leaps 
around,  never  worries  me,  but  he  sits  under  the  table 
with  that  one  paw  on  my  knee,  and  that  conquers  me; 
I  cannot  resist  the  appeal.  Although  my  wife  says  I 
never  must  do  it,  I  keep  putting  little  morsels  under 
the  table. 

Soul,  do  you  know  what  I  am  talking  about?  That 
is  the  way  to  live — with  your  hand  on  God's  knee. 
Say: 

"  My  God,  I  am  not  going  to  worry;  I  am  not  going 
to  fret;  but  there  is  my  hand,  and  I  wait  until  the 
time  comes,  and  Thou  shalt  give  me  the  desire  of  my 
heart." 

Take  His  yoke,  and  trust  Him. 

III. 

And  then  lastly,   reckon  on   GocVs  faithfulness. 

I  remember  so  well  Hudson  Taylor  coming  to  my 
church  the  first  time  I  ever  met  him.  He  stepped  on 
the  platform  and  opened  the  Bible  to  give  an  ad- 
dress, and  said:  "Friends,  I  will  give  you  the  motto 
of  my  life,"  and  he  turned  to  Mark  11:22:  "Have 
faith  in  God."     The  margin  says:  "  Have  the  faith  of 


126  BEART  RESf 


God,"  but  Hudson  Taylor  said  it  meant:  "  Reckon  on 
God's  faith  to  you."  He  continued:  *'A11  my  life  has 
been  so  fickle.  Sometimes  I  could  trust,  sometimes 
I  could  not,  but  when  I  could  not  trust  then  I  reck- 
oned that  God  would  be  faithful."  There  is  a  text 
that  says:  "  If  we  believe  not,  yet  He  abideth  faith- 
ful. He  cannot  deny  Himself."  And  I  sometimes  go 
to  God  about  a  thing,  and  say:  "My  God,  I  really 
cannot  trust  Thee  about  this,  I  cannot  trust  Thee  to 
pull  me  through  this  expenditure  of  money  with  my 
means,  but  I  reckon  on  Thy  faithfulness."  And 
when  you  cease  to  think  about  your  faith,  and,  like 
Sarah,  reckon  Him  faithful,  your  faith  comes  without 
your  knowing  it,  and  you  are  strong. 

MY   PARTING   TEXT. 

This  is  my  parting  text:  "  God  is  faithful,  by 
by  whom  ye  were  called  unto  the  fellowship  of  His 
Son  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord."     1  Cor.  1:  9. 

Fellowship!  The  same  Greek  word  occurs  in  Luke 
5.  When  Jesus  was  in  Peter's  boat  on  the  lake,  and 
the  net  was  breaking  with  the  big  haul  of  fish,  then 
Peter  beckoned  to  his  partner.  So  that  we  might  read 
the  text  thus:  "God  is  faithful,  by  whom  ye  were 
called  into  partnership  with  His  Son."  Wonderful 
conception — that  Jesus  Christ  came  to  share  my 
guilt  and  sorrow,  that  I  might  be  lifted  into  partner- 
ship with  Him  forever! 

If  a  New  York  business^man  wanted  to  start  his 
son  in  business  in  London,  he  would  call  some  old 
and  confidential  clerk  into  fellowship  with  his  son, 
and  send  them  over  together.  Suppose  the  old 
clerk  should  take  one  of  the  most  expensive   sites  in 


HEART  REST  127 


the  city  of  London,  put  his  name  down  for  an  im- 
mense rent,  and  open  a  big  business,  a  man  might 
come  to  him  and  say: 

"  You  have  launched  out?  " 

"  Yes,"  he  says,  "  I  was  sent  to  do  it." 

"Have  you  any  money?    Are  you  worth  much?" 

"No." 

"Have  you  no  money  to  fall  back  on?  " 

"No." 

"  Then,  how  do  you  dare  to  enter  upon  this  amaz- 
ing exx^enditure  ?  " 

"  Because  I  have  been  sent  by  the  head  of  our 
house  to  oiDen  this  place.  He  told  me  to  go  ahead, 
and  that  he  from  New  York  would  meet  all  the  out- 
lay. I  have  worked  for  him  for  thirty  years,  and  he 
has  never  failed  me  yet.  He  is  faithful,  and  he  will 
stand  at  my  back  to  the  end." 

Now,  brothers,  you  and  I  and  every  Christian 
worker  have  been  called  to  rest  and  work  in  Christ. 
Behind  you  is  your  faithful  God,  and  He  cannot  fail. 
If  you  will  take  the  yoke  of  Christ,  if  you  will  hand 
things  over  to  Christ,  and  if  you  will  count  upon  God 
at  your  back,  I  do  not  mind  what  happens, — your 
heart  will  be  at  rest.  Like  the  shell  which,  taken 
from  the  ocean,  repeats  the  murmur  that  she  learned 
in  the  ocean  depths,  so  your  heart  will  repeat  the 
deep  sweet  music  of  the  heart  of  God,  out  of  which 
you  have  come. 


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